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Review: Fruit Fly

Candy for the eye and ears
By SHAULA CLARK  |  May 6, 2009
2.5 2.5 Stars


VIDEO: The trailer for Fruit Fly

What Boston LGBT Film Festival would be complete without a campy, slightly smutty musical? That's a proposition we won't have to ponder this year, as writer/director/musician H.P. Mendoza's Fruit Fly is on the roster.

The film revolves around Bethesda (L.A. Renigen), a performance artist and fag hag who moves into a San Francisco art commune and pines for her long-lost Filipina mother. Some viewers might protest the leaden dialogue or the vanishing plot, but it's refreshing to see a musical that takes itself so lightly. (Consider the lyric "If you're looking for a word that rhymes with 'gay,' don't bother. Just use 'gay.' '')

Imagine Rent squeezed through a cheesecloth until all the depressing pulp is strained out and only light-hearted froth is left behind. What's more, Fruit Fly's chiptune score is infectious, and its bizarre interstitial effects — like turning the SF skyline into a game of Tetris — make for some tasty eye candy.

Related: Review: 'A Horse Is Not a Metaphor', Review: Otto; or, Up With Dead People, Review: The Lollipop Generation, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Special Interest Groups, LGBT Issues, lgbt film festival 2009,  More more >
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