V –0 08 - Rehoboth Beach Film Society

feaTure films
44
In this gently and delicately layered film, Wendy (Michelle
Williams in an Oscar® worthy performance) drives into
a shabby Oregon town with her dog, Lucy. Every penny is
precious, so she tries to shoplift some dog food; but she’s
caught, and prosecuted. upon returning she finds that Lucy’s
missing. What follows is Wendy’s long and difficult search
for Lucy. The simple becomes complex in this microscopic
tale about how, when you’ve got next to nothing, seemingly
navigable setbacks like a car breaking down or a dog
running away become insurmountable catastrophes. When
Wendy runs into genial, hippie-ish vagrants, their stories
make her decision to head to Alaska to look for work seem
like a good one, like freedom. But when her car breaks
down, she’s stranded in town. She has no place to sleep,
Timothy is a gay boy stranded in a private, rugby-obsessed
boys’ school. But there’s just one thing about rugby he’s
obsessed with: the über-hot Jonathan. Both boys are
students in Ms. Tebbit’s English class. She’s a teacher with a
mission: to excite her students with the literature of the ages.
When she decides to cast these two boys as the romantic
leads in her production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, you know she’s just as mischievous as Puck
himself. The rugby coach and townspeople are up in arms,
and Timothy sends himself off into musical gay fantasies that
look as if they’re designed by Pierre et Gilles. But Timothy
just can’t get the language right, and Ms. Tebbit advises the
boy to let the words work their magic. They do just that as
Timothy finds in the script the recipe for a potion to make
people gay! One spritz from Timothy’s magic pansy and
wendy and lucy
FRI NOV 7 8:10 PM-9:35 PM
SPONSORED BY: STEVE BAKER
SAT NOV 8 7:10 PM-8:35 PM
SuN NOV 9 12:20 PM-1:45 PM
SPONSORED BY: DOGFISH HEAD CRAFT BREWED ALES
no phone number to give the pound should Lucy turn up,
and no address to get a temporary job to sustain her. The
people around Wendy are mostly indifferent to her perilous
descent into homelessness, with the exception of a security
guard at the Walgreen’s, whose small acts of kindness
and concern are heartrending. Quiet and unassuming yet
packing a powerful punch, Wendy and Lucy addresses issues
of sympathy and generosity at the edges of American life,
revealing the limits and depths of people’s duty to each other
in tough times.
[Dir. kelly Reichardt, 2008, US, 35mm, 80 mins.]
Website: www.wendyandlucy.com
were the world mIne
Audience Award Best Film, Florida Film Festival/Best GLBT Film, Nashville Film
Festival/Outstanding American Narrative Feature, Outfest (Los Angeles GLBT
Film Festival)/Audience Award for Best Film Torino Gay and Lesbian Film Festival/
Audience Award for Best Film Inside Out (Toronto Gay and Lesbian Film Festival)
SAT NOV 8 6:30 PM-8:15 PM
SPONSORED BY: JEFF WEST HOME
SuN NOV 9 2:50 PM-4:30 PM
the person goes totally queer. The entire town (filled with
Christian fundamentalists) is whipped into a frenzy as the
glorious production night approaches. This deliciously surreal
confection is steered by first-time co-writer/director Thomas
Gustafson, whose award-winning 2003 short Fairies inspired
this bit of magic. The musical numbers are over-the-top,
production values are first-rate and the acting is as flawlessly
beautiful as the boys. We know the Bard would appreciate this
totally queer take on his immortal tale of mayhem.
[Dir. Thom Gustafson, 2008, US, video, 95 mins.]
Website: www.speakproductions.com