Customer Reviews

The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love [VHS]

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I reccently rented this movie and appreciated the way it avoided the overglossed perfect world trap that so many other love movies have stuck themselves in. Also it takes great care to avoid the preachy and heavy handed treatment given to many coming of age novels. The result: a dynamic product that anybody regardless of sexuality can relate to.

Sure, the title may make some progressives flinch (after all, how many male chauvinist fantasies have been built on the "amazing lesbian couple" theme, but I was really proud in the way this movie's script was handled and thought the movie was done very respectively and tastefully. These women seek pleasure only for themselves, and not for oogling spectators who would reduce them to an exotic item. They are natural and three dimensional beings who are trying to find their place in the world.

I am not very overly emotional about films, so I was unprepared for the crying that followed Evie and Randy's hidding. Because these women dared to be themselves, they encountered tremendous amounts of hatred and fear from their town. Whether it was the director's and writers intention or not, that part of the film was the most dramatic (I did not think it was comedic at all) and reminded me of the many publicized hate crimes against gays and lesbians.

Granted the independent nature of the film (as well as the subject matter) made it really difficult to accheive box office sucess, but the world's loss is the gain of devoted fans of all backgrounds who know caring relationships when we see it. Apparently our society is well in need of a wake up call that heterosexuality does not neccesarily equal a great and stable relationship.

"Two Girls in Love" totally shifted my way of thinking when I was smack dab in the middle of my coming-out process. I must say that the girls, for the most part, had a much easier time with their 'first love' than seems realistic, but what the hell? It's a nice story. It's a sweet movie, it'll make you want to go make a pot of cocoa and snuggle up with your girlfriend. There just aren't enough compassionate, un-tormented lesbian films out there--- but this is ONE, and it's a good start. You'll like it! Tootles!

This is one of those movies that if you catch on cable, you start watching and then are drawn into. I first caught it from the middle while flipping channels and then checked when it would be on again so I could see the whole thing. It is a very different movie. A tomboy, (I can't remember what her name was so for this write-up I'll call her Shawn) who lives with a lesbian mother and is taunted by everybody at school. She also seems to be failing all her classes. One day a girl (Evie) from her school happens into her mother's gas station. On a whim, Shawn decides to see what Evie needs. Apparently there is a problem with her tire. Shawn is immediately attracted to Evie, who seems totally lost explaining her tire problem. Evie seems to notice how Sean is looking at her and after she leaves the station, they each start thinking about the other.

Evie is the opposite of Shawn. She is very attractive and hangs with the "in" crowd at school. Evie has an egotistical, pushy boyfriend and one day has a fight with him at school. She goes to the girls room and happens upon Shawn in the bathroom. She then pours her guts out to Shawn who is totally sympathetic.

Shawn then starts telling her family clan that Evie is her girlfriend, though nothing has happened yet. Shawn decides to get bold and writes Evie a note that she slips into Evie's locker at school. Evie finds the note and says nothing of it for several days, while thinking constantly about Shawn. Evie is battling her feelings for Shawn, worried that her snobbish girlfriends would look down on her if she even associated with Shawn.

Evie can take it no longer and goes to the gas station where she first met Shawn and strikes up a friendship. The friendship starts to slowly bloom over a period of time with the girls sharing caresses and kisses. When Evie's mother needs to go out of town for a weekend, the girls plan to take their relationship to the next step.

I don't want to give the rest of the movie away but just to say that it is fun with a few laughs thrown in.

The movie shows that just because someone is different, they can have the same feelings and desires as anyone else. This is well worth renting or setting your VCR, if it is again shown on cable.

I was absolutely devoured by this film after the first scene. Laurel Holloman (Randy), is breathtaking. As is Nicole Parker (Evie), who you've probably seen in other films, one being "200 Cigarettes". A story of young love and the importance of finding out and embracing who you are. I recommend this movie for anyone, gay or straight. Invite your mate and hit the couch. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll enjoy.

I was browsing through and saw that some of the more recent reviews of this movie were ragging on the low budget quality of the film, which completely overlooks what it achieved. So I felt I needed to add my two cents on a lesbian film that will always hold a special place in my heart.

If I'm recalling correctly, the budget for the movie was somewhere around $50,000. For what many people spend on a car, Maria Maggenti was able to make an entire movie of much higher caliber than one would ever expect in a world of millions spent to make schlock. In fact, for size of the budget Maggenti had to work with, it's a cinematic masterpiece. Okay, maybe that's laying it on a bit thick, but hopefully gets my point across.

The directing and the acting by the two leads are actually fairly top notch for an independant film, and the lack of funds mostly shows in the details. The script and acting is a bit over the top in places, but then in a lot of ways it's supposed to be. Just look at the title of the movie. The movie lacks polish in pretty much all areas, but for a basically no-budget first attempt, that is easily forgiven.

The story is heartwarming and does a nice job of depicting two teenagers coming of age who are from two completely different worlds where neither of those worlds has much respect for the other. It's also a good look at first love and all that entails, whether those involved are straight or gay.

The scene where the mom comes home to find the mess is still one of my favorites in any movie just because of the unexpectedness and hilarity of it. I also think that the music during their love making is one of the best matches of music to a love scene that I've experienced in a movie, probably second only to the use of Santana's Samba Pa Ti in "If These Walls Could Talk 2". (Unfortunately I have no idea who wrote that piece of music in "Two Girls" or what it's called.)

So yeah, it's a low budget film. But focusing on that blinds one to all the positives and neglects all the wonderful aspects of this movie. "The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love" is actually a triumph of independant film-making and shows just how much can be accomplished on talent and determination alone. It puts to shame all those movies out there made with more money, but less true understanding of what makes for a good movie. It is funny and sweet and no lesbian movie collection is really complete without it. I first saw it at an international film festival when it was originally released, I owned it on VHS, and now have the DVD version. I imagine I'll still be pulling it out to watch occasionally 20 years from now.

The story of a typical first love. Not as it happens to lesbian girls only but as it happens to almost everyone. The hesitation to touch, the lovely looking. This movie doesn't have incredible dialogues but the reactions are very true. Some scenes are so cute... like when they touch each other hands for the first time. And it has hilarious scenes too! I laughed a lot! I'm a lesbian teenager and I strongly recommend! U won't be disappointed.

I'm as straight as they come, got my man and baby and everything. So I wasn't really sure how I would feel about this film.I thought,"Hey I'm either gonna love it or be really wierded out." But 'Two Girls In Love' turned out to be excellent. Even though I am straight I really related to the experiences and growing pains that Evie and Randy go through, especially the overall opposition to the relationship. No one wanted me to see my man for various different reasons and like Evie when she told her friends about her & Randy, I also lost a lot of friends because of the guy I was seeing. The bliss between the two of them all throughout the movie and the wonder/joy of your first time making love are all things that I can remember feeling so strongly with my guy. Gay or straight, this movie accurately and poignantly portrays universal themes that everyone experiences; and that is what makes this film so special. I laughed a lot and enjoyed 'Two Girls In Love' very thoroughly. I recommend it to all of you. (By the way-for all gay fans of this movie who live in California, I voted against Prop 22. I thought it was completely unnecessary and unfair.)

I've been watching movies for quite some years now, but it's only been recently, within the last year of so, that I've decided to try to broaden my horizons a bit, and take chances on movies I usually wouldn't watch. With that in mind, I've started renting some foreign movies, and began picking up movies I had never heard anything about, or starred actors I had never heard of before. That's how I came to pick up this movie, and I have to admit that overall, I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I'm going to try to break the movie down into component parts, the cast, story, and things like that, and what I liked and didn't like about each.

To start with, the cast. As I mentioned, I had never heard of any of the people that starred in this movie, and to be honest, probably will never see them again, or recognize them. The two lead characters, the two girls who fall in love, did a very credible job with their roles. Watching them, I have to say I enjoyed watching their performances, and could believe that the two of them could possibly meet one another, find a spark of attraction there, and grow to be lovers. Some of the supporting characters were a bit weakly played, but not all that bad, except for one in particular who fortunately, only appeared in two very short scenes. This was the boyfriend of Evie, the African-American girl, who was very stilted in his acting, and never seemed at ease in his role, but then again maybe he was supposed to play him that way. I don't really know, but I didn't really care for his acting ability.

As for the story itself, it unfolded in a very natural way, and the script didn't seem to downplay towards the two girls, or force them to act before they were really ready, which too many teenage lover stories seem to like to do. As a matter of fact, it's a good half way through the movie before Randy even tells Evie that she would like to hold her hand, and the awkwardness she displays there seems real to life, and further deepened my involvement in the characters lives. Neither girl is portrayed as being stupid, as a matter of fact, they spend some time reading Walt Whitman's "The Leaves of Grass" to one another, and enjoy it. By the time they do consummate their relationship, we know the two girls as well as they know each other, and fell glad for them.

My main disappointment with the movie was the ending, which seemed kind of slapped on, and changed the mood of the movie. Prior to it, I was enjoying the burgeoning love relationship the two girls were experiencing, and the end turns into a sort of slapstick farce where everyone introduced earlier in the story are brought together to a hotel where the girls have gone into hiding after having been found out. It seemed a bit anticlimatic after the story I was enjoying, but not enough so to completely diminish the good feeling raised by the rest of the film.

So, all things considered, I would have to recommend this movie to anyone who is looking for something just a little bit different from what you usually watch. If you are like me, I don't think you will be disappointed.

The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love is a really cute movie about two seventeen year-old girls and their relationship with each other. The two actresses are pretty good here - sometimes the acting is a little strained or unnatural but overall it's good. It's really cute and you just find yourself going AWWW. Basically, it's an essential movie to see/own in a lesbian collection. It also has appeal to everybody, not only lesbians. One of the better/best lesbian movies. Also, fans of Laurel Holloman (seen on The L Word TV series) will enjoy watching her here!

The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love, was a film that I really enjoyed. The characters genuinely seem to have a sense of themselves, and the time that they are portraying, which creates a very sincere and realistic atmosphere. The main characters in the film are Randy, a young rebel, reminiscent of James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, and Evie, a more conservative, naive girl that is struggling against the ideas of the mainstream. The two girls' differences are very accented in the film, Randy is white and Evie is black, Randy likes rock music and Evie likes classical, Randy is a loner/loser and Evie has friends and is well liked. The two girls meet at the gas station that Randy works at and somehow, against all odds, fall in love. Their story is shown as their struggle basically against their families, their friends, and society as a whole to follow through with their feelings for each other.
One aspect of the film that I didn't like was the relative ease of their feelings. Most young teens in this society would have a much greater internal battle about the fact that they had feelings for someone of the same sex, and little of that was portrayed. They seemed to move through their actions with relative ease. However, overall I felt that most of their feelings and actions were done very well.
The history of the film, and also some of the technical aspects are very worth mentioning. The film was shot in a record 21 days, and none of the actors or crew members were paid. All of the locations were homes, donated for free by gay men. Also, the crew was for the most part female, which adds an interesting spin to how you look at the film. It is an independent film, and that freedom shows through on the technical aspects. Many of the shots are very creative, and go against the mainstream Hollywood style of film. For example, some scenes are shot from above, looking down at the actors, to enhance the feeling of the moment, which isn't often done. A great panning shot is used at one point in the kitchen of Randy's home, where you can only see the kitchen table, and see the waists of the actors, while they are making dinner. It adds something incredible to the scene. If you were to see this movie for anything, look to it for it's creative use of the camera, and the way that the technical aspects enhance the story.
So yes, I would definitely recommend this movie to others. A viewer should go into it with an open mind, and be ready to see a story that is simple, but real -- and heartfelt.