After originally premiering at Sundance Film Festival in 1995, “The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love” returns as part of this year’s online “pre-fest,” the first screening shown to virtual festival attendees. Written and directed by Maria Maggenti, this film strikes a chord with the lesbian community and allows for the queer experience to be more than trauma.
The Adventure
The film follows Randy (Laurel Holloman), a 17-year-old out lesbian who is flunking out of high school. She lives with her gay aunt, Rebecca (Kate Stafford), and when she is not home or at school, Randy works at a gas station. Evie (Nicole Ari Parker), a girl from a family of high status, enters the picture and, when she is afraid of filling up the back tire of her Range Rover with air, Randy assists her. After their momentary meet-cute, they bump into each other again in the bathroom at school and their romance begins to bud.
Incredibly True
Maggenti has created a time capsule of a film for queer people that grew up in the 90s, but one that still connects with young members of the LGBTQIA+ community. The script brings out the humanity of Randy and Evie with physical comedy — their awkwardness plays out through shots of their feet, tripping over hoses and running over beds. It’s an artistic choice that reminds the audience of the beauty of adolescence and the blissful ignorance that comes with it. Throughout the entire movie they are quite literally falling head over heels for each other. These metaphorical cinematic shots add to the aesthetic of the film while also building the chemistry between Randy and Evie. It is marvelous how these seemingly aimless shots make the film full of life and humor.
At the end of the film, Maggenti listed a dedication of the film to her first love, in hopes that this film would bring her a sense of closure. In this statement, it became clear that this movie was a product of truth. Through this sentiment, the audience is reminded that the experiences within this film are almost universal for members of the gay community.
Two Girls in Love
“The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love” is a stereotypical lesbian-love story ahead of its time, in that it follows all of the classic trauma-filled queer tropes, yet establishes a genuine connection between two women that is unlike anything in film today. The romance between Randy and Evie is so incredibly raw and shows the simplicities of youthful, gay, female-centered love.
The common theme surrounding queer stories in today’s media is a thread of homophobia as a plot device. While this is an inevitable of the queer experience, it is not all-consuming. Queer people deserve to see their opportunities of happy endings displayed in the media. That being said, the time period that the movie was filmed in forced it to focus on the inherent homophobia of the time. The film tallied up a win for the lesbian community when the movie did not focus on the intolerance. Instead, the main characters sought to extend boundaries and encourage those around them to evolve.
m.reynolds@dailyutahchronicle.com
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