NO ONE CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY BUT YOU…
The 126m dramedy introduces us to Klein/ GiGi de Janeiro (Jordan M. Green), Marmalade (Kelly Mantle), Stevie Dix (Alaska Thunderfuck) and Rita (Laganja Estranja), four protagonists that do professional drag shows in Los Angeles for a living. While being together at a Gurus´ retreat to relax and have therapy sessions under the stars, they recount their recent experiences, some we have watched, others we will learn via flashbacks.
The opening scene makes a nod to Armistead Maupin´s Tales of the City while Klein, looking for a job, visits a house slightly similar to the one at 28 Barbary Lane, no Anna Madrigal though, instead of a racist and homophobic woman, period. Meanwhile, Lewis, also known as Marmalade, talks to his Australian parakeet and gets ready to go out. Stevie and Rita dress up and are in a hurry to perform, and they manifest issues with each other that must be overlooked since they do well as the Dix Royale duo. The four characters are central to the storytelling and allow us to see them in the context of their daily life and performative selves.
We witness a cat´s fight that should be private going public, a confrontative monologue, acquaintances that care and allow twists and turns in the plot, how a peaceful existence is far away from the drag world, and queens who figure the hell out by their own to live the life they want according to their own principles.
The fictional film has been made for us as viewers and is dedicated to all the queens in the making out there, asking them not to dare to give up, since what they do and share is a piece in the puzzle of life and the experience of being human.
GiGi, Marmalade, Stevie, and Rita will look forward to continuing fighting, fighting harder for the next thing in their lives. Due to God, each one of them has a reason to do so.
The film is Jordan Danger’s directorial debut and she also writes the screenplay. It had its World Premiere this June at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Review by José Mayorga , Guatemala, Central America lawyer and notary public, visual artist, and editor of
El Azar Cultural, raised as a Catholic, lives and works in Guatemala City. Cinema lover, curious about the possibilities
life brings and eager to live the experience.
Labels: 2022, Alaska Thunderstruck, drag queens, dramedy, God Save The Queens, Jordan Danger, Jordan M Green, kelly Mantle, Laganja Estranja
