
Victoria
The best thing about Victoria isn’t actually its technical prowess—it’s the lead performance from the mesmerizing Laia Costa as the title character.
The best thing about Victoria isn’t actually its technical prowess—it’s the lead performance from the mesmerizing Laia Costa as the title character.
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"Every other time I've been to a lesbian hooker, they've accepted
Talbot's gift certificates," a baffled elderly client says to the
lesbian hooker who just serviced her. The lesbian hooker is new to the
job, a sloppy dresser, asthmatic and naive, but she knows that she
doesn't want a Talbot's card, she needs the cash. The ongoing joke that
lesbian hookers in New York City congregate outside of Talbot's because
that's where the real action is is the funniest part of "The Foxy
Merkins," a lesbian spin on the male-hustler genre, directed by
Madeleine Olnek. It's a one-joke movie, written by Olnek with Lisa Haas
and Jackie Monahan (who both star), and while much of it is quite funny,
the film ends up feeling like a good comedy sketch stretched out
unnecessarily to a feature-length.
Margaret (Lisa Haas) is new to being a hooker. She dresses "like a
homeless women's studies major," observes Jo (Jackie Monahan), another
hooker who has taken Margaret under her wing. Jo wears cute outfits and
huge sunglasses, grew up rich, and is far more successful at working the
streets than Margaret. In one funny scene, the two women walk down the
sidewalk, Jo drawling in a bored monotone at everybody they pass, "See
that girl in the peach outfit? Slept with her … Girl in the boots over
there? Slept with her…." The two of them sleep in the Port Authority bus
station, stashing their clothes under the sink and a bottle of tequila
behind one of the toilets. By day, they stalk the streets and hang
around outside of Talbot's with all the other hookers, ogling the uptown
matrons on their way in and out of the store. Sometimes they score.
Margaret's efforts to sell her body for cash are bumbling and awkward,
and sometimes painfully funny. Jo drawls bored advice at her protege:
"You are the kind of lesbian that the client will be mortified to be
seen with, so they'll pay extra." Margaret nods, saying, "Uh-huh." There
is a long unfunny sequence where Margaret keeps getting busted at the
same hotel by two cops who barge in with guns. It's meant to be
slapstick, it's meant to be Keystone Cops, but it's strangely airless,
lacking the manic propulsion that could push the events into true
screwball.
There are a lot of callbacks to male hustler movies: Jo has an "I'm
walkin' here!" moment reminiscent of Dustin Hoffman's famous scene in "Midnight
Cowboy." There's a quiet heartfelt scene over a campfire, where
Margaret expresses her romantic feelings for Jo, a nod to a similar
sequence in "My Own Private Idaho." But "The Foxy Merkins" suffers by
comparison. When the film steps into more sentimental waters (Margaret
searching for her mother, the pain of abandonment), it's a total
stretch. The film can't take it. It's too slight. Both actresses are
game, and watching their scenes together is a delight (Monahan is a
deadpan queen), but the story rests on some pretty flimsy architecture.
Early in the film, there are "interviews" with various lesbian hookers,
who talk directly to the camera about what got them into it, what it was
like for them. They share funny or weird anecdotes. These hookers are
all played by actresses, but the documentary-energy is genuine, and
these scenes have real interest, real humor. The fake-interview device
is dropped early on (although it does return at the very end), and its
disappearance is a mistake. The fake interviews focus "The Foxy
Merkins," interrupting the adventures of Jo and Margaret, reminding us
that none of it should be taken too seriously.
Olnek directed 2011's hilariously weird "Codependent Lesbian Space Alien
Seeks Same" (also with Haas and Monahan in the cast). That film was a
wacky black-and-white comedy depicting a yearning lesbian who is
contacted by an equally yearning, totally bald lesbian
alien. Confident in its tone and style from the first frame, calling to
mind the films of Ed Wood, "Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same"
was fresh, funny, and truly bizarre. "The Foxy Merkins" keeps the comedy
ball rolling along, thanks in part to the two talented actresses in the
lead roles, but there's just not much else there.
This message came to me from a reader named Peter Svensland. He and a fr...
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