SYNOPSIS: In “Lesbian Space Princess,” an irreverent animated sci-fi comedy musical for adults now playing in theatres, the introverted Princess Shaira (Shabana Azeez) leaves her sheltered life on planet Clitopolis behind to travel through space in search of her ex-girlfriend, Kiki (Bernie Van Tiel). After she is kidnapped by Straight White Maliens.
CAST: Shabana Azeez, Bernie Van Tiel, Gemma Chua-Tran, Richard Roxburgh, Kween Kong, and comedy troupe Aunty Donna, Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly, and Zachary Ruane. Directed by Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese.
REVIEW: A mix of raunchy humor and heartfelt moments, “Lesbian Space Princess” is a delightfully campy sci fi adventure.
At the film’s start Princess Shaira (Shabana Azeez), daughter of Planet Clitopolis’s two lesbian queens, is devastated. Kiki, her girlfriend of two weeks dumped her, and now, has been kidnapped by the villainous the Straight White Maliens. These rectangular-shaped alien incels took Kiki in hopes of luring Princess Shaira and her mystical double-sided axe, the labrys, which they plan on stealing to power their “chick magnet.”
As Shaira traverses the Gaylaxy in search of her ex, she encounters drag queen Blades (Kween Kong), saves former gay-pop idol Willow (Gemma Chua-Tran) from an abandoned moon crystal mine and learns to embrace self-love over the affections of others. “ I went through all this,” Shaira says, “and why? Cuz I wanted Kiki to love me? Now I see my biggest problem is that I didn’t even love myself. We deserve to love ourselves without a chick magnet.”
Like an extended episode of “South Park” “Lesbian Space Princess” is fast paced, vibrant and packed with madcap humor and situations, but after the laughs it’s the film’s surprisingly sweet edge that lingers.
“Elvis,” the new King of Rock ‘n Roll biopic from maximalist director Baz Luhrmann, begins with a sparkling, bedazzled Warner Bros logo and gets flashier and gaudier from there.
The movie is told from the point of view of Elvis’s (Austin Butler) manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks under an inch or two of makeup), a huckster with a flair for spotting talent and a gift for manipulation.
Working on the carnival circuit taught Parker that a great act “gave the audience feelings they weren’t sure if they should enjoy,” a standard the early, hip-shaking Elvis met and exceeded.
Their partnership is one of the best known, and well documented success stories of the twentieth century. For twenty years, through the birth of rock ‘n roll of the late 1950s and the cheesy Hollywood years to the legendary 1968 Comeback Special and the Las Vegas rise and fall, Elvis and the Colonel shimmied and shook their way to the top of the charts and into the history books.
“Elvis” covers a lot of ground. From young Elvis (Chaydon Jay) discovering his love of music from the Black rhythm and blues artists and Mississippi church music he absorbed as a kid to his final white jumpsuit days in Vegas, Luhrmann shakes, rattles and rolls throughout in a blur of images and spectacular sound design.
It entertains the eye but feels akin to skipping a stone on a lake. If you hold the stone just right and throw it across the still water at the correct angle, it will skim along for what seems like forever without ever piercing the surface.
“Elvis” is a great looking movie. A pop art explosion that vividly essays the story’s various time frames and styles, it makes an impact visually and sonically. Unfortunately, Luhrmann is content to make your eyeballs dance, your gold TCB chains rattle and simply skim across the surface.
We do learn that Elvis was the sum of his country music and R’n’B experiences and influences, was fueled by the adoration of his audience and aware of the social change of the 1960s, but there is no excavation, no real exploration of what made the singer or his manager actually tick. It may seem fitting that a movie about a man who drove pink Cadillacs and wore phoenix embroidered jumpsuits and capes is over-the-top, but those images are so woven into the fabric of popular culture already that this feels clichéd, more like greatest hits album than a biography.
Butler is a charismatic performer, playing Elvis through several stages of his life, and despite the superficiality of the storytelling hands in a rounded performance that transcends impersonation of a man who spawned a generation (or two) of impersonators.
It’s rare to see Hanks play a character with no redeeming qualities. “I am the man who gave the world Elvis Presley,” he says, “and yet there are some who would make me out to be the villain of this story.” His take on Colonel Parker grates, with the theatrical Dutch accent and imperious, manipulative manner, he is certainly the villain of the piece. He’s a pantomime of the big, bad music manager, one who saw his client as a musical ATM machine and little more.
By the time the end credits roll “Elvis” emerges as an idealized look at the boy from Tupelo who became the King by paying tribute to the power of the music that made a legend.
SYNOPSIS: In “Lesbian Space Princess,” an irreverent animated sci-fi comedy musical for adults now playing in theatres, the introverted Princess Shaira (Shabana Azeez) leaves her sheltered life on planet Clitopolis behind to travel through space in search of her ex-girlfriend, Kiki (Bernie Van Tiel). After she is kidnapped by Straight White Maliens.