‘Bar Girls’ falls flat despite intriguing lesbian premise
By Lael Loewenstein
Daily Bruin Staff
In the trailer for this film, a narrator enthusiastically
bellows, "If you see one lesbian movie this year, make it Bar
Girls."
A better piece of advice: If you see one lesbian movie this
year, make sure it isn’t Bar Girls.
The premise behind Bar Girls was decent enough: why not make a
film that honestly and openly portrays lesbians. And the premise
behind its marketing campaign seemed solid: why not try to reach
both gay and straight audiences?
Other commercially released films have paid lip service to the
lesbian subculture: The recent Boys on the Side featured a lesbian
character but not a lesbian storyline. And the well-received Fried
Green Tomatoes also side-stepped the lesbian issue.
Art-house films like Go Fish, Claire of the Moon and Desert
Heart have generally made a more favorable impression on the
lesbian community, but they failed to reach mainstream audiences.
In contrast to these films, Bar Girls attempts to go beyond
traditional "coming out" stories, concentrating on women who have
embraced their lesbian lifestyle.
But it takes more than a constructive political agenda to make a
good film.
First produced as a play in Los Angeles to a warm reception by
the lesbian community, Bar Girls is based on the life of
writer-producer Lauran Hoffman. The story follows Loretta,
Hoffman’s alter ego, as she pursues true love.
Played by Nancy Allison Wolfe, Loretta is brassy and extroverted
on the surface but deeply insecure. A cartoon artist, Loretta
spends her nights at Girl Bar, where a group of apparently
incestuous lesbians pass the time.
Loretta meets Rachel (Rae Dawn Chong look-alike Liza D’Agostino)
at the bar and takes her home in her convertible. They exchange war
stories of their failed romances, and before you know it, they are
in love.
If things seem a bit rushed, it’s only because Hoffman wants to
set up the conflict, in which a rookie cop in a cowboy hat named
J.R. (Camila Griggs) swaggers into the bar and tries to seduce
Rachel.
What follows is a ridiculous series of catfights, ending, oddly
enough, with Loretta and J.R. taking a lust-filled, hatred-filled
roll on the floor.
While all this is going on, Loretta decides she wants to "out"
her cartoon heroine, heavy Myrtle. There’s a mildly amusing scene
in which Loretta and her writing partner (Michael Harris) meet with
a (presumably straight) executive who likes the idea. "Lesbians are
hot right now," she declares, before insisting that Myrtle’s
flirtation with another woman ultimately be pre-empted by her
choice to go off with a man.
Bar Girls suffers from a script that goes in too many directions
to be compelling. It is never as funny as it wants to be, nor,
apparently, as it thinks it is: The women are constantly
wisecracking, but most of the humor falls flat.
If audiences can learn anything from Bar Girls, it’s that
lesbians can be just as irritating and just as self-indulgent as
straight people.
FILM: Bar Girls. Directed by Marita Giovanni. Written by Lauran
Hoffman. Starring Nancy Allison Wolfe, Liza D’Agostino and Camila
Griggs.