Girls Will Be Girls (2003/I)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Richard Day

Writer (WGA):

Richard Day (written by)

Release Date:

5 July 2006 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

An actress is nothing without a meaty part.

Plot:

Three actresses at various places on the Hollywood food chain navigate the minefield of love, aging, and ambition. Oh, and they're all played by men! |

Awards:

5 wins

Cast

Jack Plotnick	...	Evie
Clinton Leupp	...	Coco (as Coco Peru)
Jeffery Roberson	...	Varla / Marla
Ron Mathews	...	Stevie
Eric Stonestreet	...	Dr. Benson
Hamilton von Watts	...	Laurent
Dana Gould	...	Jeff
Chad Lindsey	...	Dr. Perfect
Greg Whitney	...	Asteroid Actor
Dennis Hensley	...	Speci-mercial Director
Sam Pancake	...	Brad
Jamie Malone	...	Young Stevie
Lurie Poston	...	Young Varla
Michael Stoyanov	...	Michael (as Mike Stoyanov)
Jesus Fuentes	...	Nurse (as Jay Fuentes)
Richard Ahren	...	Burn Victim (as Rich Ahren)
Mark Cirillo	...	Diner Waiter
Kris Andersson	...	Receptionist
Edward Tunney	...	Guy on Street
Cliff Curry	...	Student
Nathan LePage	...	Priest
Michael Warwick	...	Clown
Christopher Isaacson	...	Waitress (as Chris Isaacson)
Just Jan	...	Whore at Restaurant
Richard Day	...	John at Restaurant
Sir Tony	...	John in Alley
Mort Kessler	...	Mort
Aaron Emmett	...	Mover
Pat Towne	...	Announcer Voices (voice)
Ginger Snaps	...	Magazine Cover Cher
Raphael Louis Marino	...	Magazine Cover Madonna

Directed by
Richard Day

Writing credits (WGA)
Richard Day		(written by)

Produced by
Richard Ahren	....	producer
Jack Plotnick	....	executive producer
Michael Warwick	....	producer

Original Music by
Stephen Edwards

Cinematography by
Nicholas Hutak

Film Editing by
Chris Conlee

Casting by
Collin Daniel

Production Design by
Shannon Schwiebert

Art Direction by
Brandi Hugo
Gabrielle Nieto

Costume Design by
Brandt Huseby

Makeup Department
Adam Christopher	....	key makeup artist
Kari Nicole	....	assistant makeup artist
Ken Niederbaumer	....	special makeup effects artist
Sergio Picasso	....	special makeup effects artist
Sir Tony	....	key hair stylist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jennifer Lai	....	first assistant director
Matthew Osburn	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Cliff Curry	....	graphic artist
David Kolodny-Nagy	....	assistant art director
Stephanie Robinson	....	property master

Sound Department
Robert Backus	....	boom operator
Sean England	....	machine room operator
Andrea S. Gard	....	supervising sound editor
Vincent Guisetti	....	foley artist
Jamie Hammons	....	foley artist
Lora Hirschberg	....	sound re-recording mixer
Eric Johnson	....	adr recordist
Eric Johnson	....	background sound editor
Pamela Kahn	....	foley artist (as Pamela Nedd Kahn)
Mark Lanza	....	sound effects editor (as Mark A. Lanza)
Mark Lanza	....	sound re-recording mixer
Mark Lanza	....	supervising sound editor
Stewart Nelson	....	dialogue editor (as Stuart Nelson)
Peter O'Brien	....	sound effects editor
Juan Peralta	....	sound mix technician
George Peterson Jr.	....	sound recordist
Brandon Proctor	....	sound mix technician
Mark Purcell	....	machine room operator
Mark Purcell	....	sound recordist
Kyle Rochlin	....	foley artist
Kyle Rochlin	....	foley mixer
Ronald G. Roumas	....	sound recordist (as Ron Roumas)
Mac Smith	....	assistant sound editor
Mac Smith	....	sound editing assistant
Dan Zimbaldi	....	sound recordist

Special Effects by
Jeff Colbert	....	prosthetics (as Jeffrey Colbert)

Visual Effects by
Thomas R. Dickens	....	visual effects
Christopher Dusendschon	....	digital imaging: iO FILM
Rennie Johnson	....	visual effects
Harry Walton	....	visual effects supervisor

Camera and Electrical Department
Bob Good	....	grip
Jody Hutchins	....	grip
David L. Marks	....	camera assistant (as David Marks)
Buck Rogers	....	key grip
John Rutter	....	best boy
Ted T.E. Tunney	....	gaffer (as Edward Tunney)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Stacy Stagnaro	....	wardrobe supervisor

Editorial Department
Guillermo Beltrán	....	on-line editor
Beau J. Genot	....	post-production consultant
Rachel Hensley	....	assistant editor
Mato	....	color timer
Amber McKenzie	....	assistant editor
Zac Stanford	....	colorist

Other crew
Chris Bunker	....	production assistant
Jennifer Burkley	....	production assistant
Katie Burns	....	titles
Andrew Colon	....	production consultant
Judy Dixon	....	press publicist
Sharre Jacoby	....	producer: main and end titles
Anthony Ross	....	adr loop group
Tracy Scott	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• SRO Pictures

Distributors

• Optimale (2006) (France) (theatrical)
• Eagle Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (DVD)
• GAGA (2005) (Japan) (DVD)
• IFC Films (USA)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Chapman/Leonard Studio Equipment  camera dollies
• Dominion3 Public Relations  unit publicity
• Skywalker Sound  post-production sound services

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality, language and drug content.

Runtime:

79 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:MA | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

SRO Pictures

Trivia:

According to the director/cast commentary on the DVD, there were no actual women performing in the film. All female characters, including extras and the models for the magazine covers of Cher and Madonna, are performed by men in drag.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: During the Varla/Laurant diner scene, if you look under Varla's arm, you can see the store security tag attached to her sweater. According to the DVD commentary, the clerk forgot to take it off and they were short for time on the shoot.

Quotes:

[Marla pulls out a gun at Evie's party]
Evie: Stevie, shield mommy.

Movie Connections:

References "The Facts of Life" (1979)

Soundtrack:

Piz Staccato

A campy and catty blend of melodrama and comedy

Like the love child of "Absolutely Fabulous" and every novel Jacqueline Susann's ever written, "Girls Will Be Girls" is an 80-minute festival of campy trash, hilarious one-liners, and bitchy, catty women. The only catch this time is that the women are all played by men.

Evie (Jack Plotnick) is a washed-up B-movie actress who is decidedly not aging gracefully. She lives with Coco (Clinton Leupp), her more grounded friend who functions mainly as Evie's maid and abuse magnet. Into their lives walks their new roommate Varla (Jeffery Roberson), an aspiring starlet whose late mother Marla (also Roberson in flashbacks) was also Evie's most hated acting rival. All of them have dreams, of course. Evie's dreams involve drinking as many martinis as she can and then having plenty of sex with anyone available. Coco still pines for the hunky abortion doctor that operated on her many years ago. Varla hopes to become the actress that her mother couldn't while dealing with the advances of Evie's gorgeous but microscopically-endowed son Stevie (Ron Mathews). Of course, there are hidden motives galore, and more than one mean-spirited one-liner.

The gimmick of this film, that all the women are played by men, is never as overstated as you may think. After all, the characters are all female, and they are treated in the story as if they are female. It's only slightly different than young boys performing the female roles in Shakespeare's plays. The camp value of the movie focuses not on the drag spectacle, but on the unrelenting melodrama and silliness of the plot, taking the elements of ridiculous films like "Valley Of The Dolls" and upping them to a level so ludicrous, they can only be considered comedy. That the framework of the film makes all of these developments seem perfectly natural and realistic is a credit to director and writer Richard Day.

The actors are all quite game and in on the absurdity of their surroundings. Plotnick is quite humorous, dropping the most mean-spirited one-liners you'll ever laugh at, and the clips of Evie performing in the 60's stinker "Asteroid" resemble nothing less than Morgan Fairchild on quaaludes. Leupp reprises the role of Coco from his scene-stealing moments in the movie "Trick", and he imbues the character both with a humorous sense of bad luck and an immediately sympathetic personality. Roberson is not quite as spectacular as his co-stars, but he gives the naive, trusting Varla a great heart and a hilarious scene involving opera and cheese in a can. Even Mathews is great, all melodramatic soap hunk and hair product.

While the movie receives high marks for style, including efficient and effective set design and a very nice score, it's a very loud movie in the sense that every scene is turned up to 11. While this works most of the time, even at the film's short running time, it tends to strain. The ending veers sharply away from comedy into deep melodramatic territory, and even though it is diffused quite handily, the film almost drowns in TV-movie-of-the-week sap before the mood lightens again. Also, some may find the hostile attitudes of some of the characters, mainly Evie and to a degree Coco, to be too off-putting for comfort. Evie, especially, is one of the most unsympathetic characters you'll meet in a film this year.

Regardless, the film is hilarious and immensely entertaining. A high recommendation for anyone who likes divas, camp, or catty fun. And don't forget to bring the cheese. 8 out of 10.