Fun in Girls' Shorts

Strand Releasing

The hit-to-miss ratio on these queer shorts compilations can be depressingly low, but happily this one only has one clunker (That would be the arty ode to teen angst, Can You Take It?, a stylishly shot but ultimately pointless exercise that strengthened my conviction that just as we don't let toddlers play with matches, film school students should not be allowed to watch David Lynch movies.) Jenn Kao's futuristic tale of isolation, Outside, perhaps treads the line between understated and underdeveloped with its fuzzy post-apocalyptic setting, but its lead actress conveys the aching loneliness of a woman who's spent her life in the solitary cocoon of a fallout shelter built for one. Carolina Roca-Smith imbues her Members Only with plenty of energy and humor, spinning gold from the hay of dyke stereotypes with a story about a young lesbian who can't get any play because she doesn't have her official gay card yet. Love is also in the air in Claudia Lorenz's sweet and elegant Hoi Maya when two elderly women can't stop looking at each other at the beauty parlor. In the hilarious Hung, Guinevere Turner wonders what it would be like to have a penis, giving a gaggle of dykes a magic potion that gives them a dong for a day. In my favorite of the lot, Airplanes, Jen Heck evokes the thrill of sexual attraction by interweaving old filmstrips about aviation safety with a compact story of a fleeting love connection at a carnival. And that's the fun of all these short films; they're a quick ride that leaves you wanting more.