We have two DVDs to give away, thanks to Peccadillo Pictures. Just mail hal@gaelick.com to be in with a chance. Good luck!

Back in the day, shorts used to suck. Sorry, but it’s true. They’re a great way of learning the movie-making trade and getting your foot in the door, but a lot of women seemed to think that they were also a license to bore. I remember one year at the Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in Dublin, watching arty shorts, embarrassingly pretentious and, however worthy they way be, not at all entertaining. I was with my sister and we both went for dinner afterward laughing our assess off.

Things have, thankfully, changed. With the advent of production groups like PowerUp in the US, young film-makers have access to more experienced hands and the advice seems to be making a huge difference.

Peccadillo Pictures in the UK, have separated the wheat from the chaff in a great collection of little films called Here Come The Girls 2. There are nine films on the disk, all but one of which are interesting and will have you chatting over your popcorn. There should always be a thread through the films in a collection like this one and it seems that “Fairytale and Fantasy” seems to be the over-riding theme here.

We start with the original D.E.B.S (left) short. It’s as funny, irreverent and cheesy as the full-length film and hugely entertaining as a result. When it’s over, you’ll want more. Just as well Angela Robinson gave it to you.

From high camp fantasy, you go to this odd little nugget. Romeo and Juliet are the obvious inspiration for these two lovers who seem destined to have their love unfulfilled. Henna Night stars the drop-dead-gorgeous Amber Rose Revah who some will know as Tala’s sister in I Can’t Think Straight (and Amina’s grandmother in The World Unseen‘s back-flash), as a woman about to marry a man she doesn’t love. Can her girlfriend’s bewitching cookery seduce her from this path?

Memoir of an Evil Stepmother is the first of three films on the disk starring Jane Lynch. If you love her in Glee, and who doesn’t, you’ll love her here as she steals the show. Blanche is well-known in the tabloids as “the evil stepmother”, who killed her perfect daughter known as “snow white”. There is, though, a story behind the headlines and Blanche is determined that it be known.

Falling for Caroline is one of the sweetest films you’ll see in a long time. It stars Yanna Baizer ( left in the pic on the right) as Darcy, the most accident-prone, klutz on film. She’s just a normal lesbian looking for love, when she meets Caroline. She knows immediately that she is the one. She just has to convince Caroline. This is a charming little gem and worth buying the disk alone.

Promtroversy is a modern ugly-duckling story without the “removes glasses, shakes out hair, looks gorgeous” cliche. Cassie is hot, she’s sexy and she’s the only lesbian in an Ohio high school. She’s out and proud and wants to go to the prom. Along the way one person in particular starts to see her in a completely different light. Watch out for more Jane Lynch as a homophobic member of the PTA.

Stuck is the most un-Jamie Babbit-like film, and had me…well..stuck. It’s a weird acid-trip of a film about two older lesbians who are constantly bickering. They head out to their weekly bridge game only to be involved in an accident. I’m a Babbit fan and loved But I’m a Cheerleader and The Itty Bitty Titty Committee, but this couldn’t be more different. It’s dour, bleak and seems like a bump on the road of this DVD.

Little Black Boot is a modern retelling of Cinderella. Cindy is an outsider in high-school, living with her step-mother (Jane Lynch again) and two bitchy step-sisters (left). Her only friend is a cute local gay guy. They both decide to boycott the prom, but Cindy really wants to go. And not alone….there is a certain someone she has her eye on.

Next up is a beguiling little number about a smart young woman trying to write a book report about James Joyce. She’s drinking coffee in a local diner, trying to get her head around Ulysses, when she meets Bobby.  Bobby is a writer who is home to visit his family but sees himself in the young Mary. The two talk, fight and write over one night that changes both of them. Excellent acting makes Overnight Book one that will stick with you for days.

Last and least we have Wavelengths. This is one of those old shorts that sucked. Made back in 1997 it has aged badly, and it wasn’t even good when I saw it back then. It’s a highly stylised yarn about a woman looking for love on the internet. The internet has grown in the 13 years since this films came out and it shows. This is the only dud on the disk though, which isn’t bad going. You can understand why they put it on as it was made by Pratibha Parmar who went on to write and direct Nina’s Heavenly Delights.

Book-ended by films made by, now, well-renowned writer/directors Here Come the Girls 2 is one for the collection.

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