The Male-Inspired Lesbian Orgasm

BELOW HER MOUTH

April Mullen, 2016

Below Her Mouth was marketed as "a lesbian movie that finally has the female gaze." And then there's Erika Linder as one of the lead characters. I was excited to watch the film because of its alleged female gaze and the androgynous beauty of Miss Linder. Unexpectedly, my lezzie excitement turned into dykey disappointment.

Allow me to explain why.

Jasmine (Natalie Krill) and Dallas (Miss Linder) are two women on the opposite sides of everything. If we're talking about stereotypes, Jasmine is the femme and Dallas is the butch. Jasmine works in the hyper-feminine fashion industry, while Dallas has an uber-masculine carpentry business. Jasmine is engaged to a man, while Dallas just broke up with her girlfriend. Want labels? Okay. Jasmine is straight (or so she thought), and Dallas is a lesbian (with a certain fascination for the phallic — f*ck that sh*t).

The moment their horny worlds collide, Jasmine and Dallas begin a salacious love affair. From there, we watch and listen as the film stumbles and mumbles its way into boredom and underachievement. To begin with, the film has the usual "straight-girl-falls-for-a-lesbian" plot. Nothing new. Audiences have already seen Piper Perabo fall for Lena Headey in Imagine Me & You. And if you're a well-versed lesbian, chances are you've already seen such plot in Desert Hearts.

Nevertheless, such tale as old as time could've been less predictable and more exciting if the director only knew how to tell it in a different, more original way.

I Am a Woman, Watch Me Make a Movie

Eve has definitely come a long way since she was allegedly taken out of Adam's rib. She has long stepped out of his shadow, standing up for herself and speaking her mind. Eve doesn't need many Twitter followers or a thousand of Facebook likes just to prove her worth. She knows she's worth it.

Cinema has given the female species an opportunity to express themselves; and the opportunity isn't wasted. Although filmmaking is mostly a man's world, women have become the captain of their own cinematic ship.

In celebration of being a woman, I listed down some of my favorite films directed by women. (In alphabetical order.)

The Beauty of a One-Way Mirror

EXOTICA
Atom Egoyan, 1994

I've always been a fan of surrealism — may it be paintings, poems, or films. There's just this enormous fascination with what's lurking in the great beyond. Predictability just doesn't sit well with me, just as tracing or merely copying a picture doesn't appeal to me as a drawing or a painting. Predictability is emptiness. Chaos is substance. You know what Banksy said, "Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable."

Well, Atom Egoyan's Exotica sure disturbed me just as much as it comforted me. This somewhat Buñuelesque film is mostly set in the fictional Exotica, a Toronto strip club where various lives converge to make up a discombobulating tale of love, loss, and heartbreak.