Cloudburst
(2011/Wolfe DVD)
Picture:
B Sound: C Extras: C Film: B+
Stella
and Dotty have been lesbians living together for 31 years, but after Dot's
granddaughter tries to put Dot into a nursing home, they decide to take a road
trip to Canada
where they can legally get married. Along
the way, they pick up a penniless male dancer hitchhiker, Prentice who learns
more about love and lesbians than he ever wanted. Together, they teach that no love is too late
nor is it too far to go in Thom Fitzgerald’s Cloudburst (2011).
Not just
a drama or melodrama, this is a hilarious road trip journey about two grandma
lesbians on the run for the sake of love. Dotty (Brenda Fricker) is blind and in her
declining years relies on the tough as nails, fowled mouthed swearing Stella (Olympia
Dukakis) who will do anything to keep them together. After breaking Dot out of the nursing home,
they make a run for Canada where they can get married, but Stella, being
paranoid they get caught, picks up the an eccentric young hot male dancer,
Prentice to help get them across the border. Needless to say this was before all the gay
marriage controversy took its latest turns, but that does not date the film one
bit.
This was
a touching, funny and inspirational movie for lesbians and the non-lesbians. While there are no hot-lesbian-girls-having-sex-scenes,
there still is a bit of amusing nudity. This
film is about a love story of what gays and lesbians have to endure. While
marriage is not allowed in some states, the can still live together, but after
a lifetime of being in hiding it is worth it to come out ...even if it is just
for a day, like a beautiful cloudburst, to enjoy that moment of beauty and
freedom.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image looks terrific and was shot in the Super
35mm format (3-perf version) on Fuji film, one
of the last films that will ever be made like that since Fuji has ceased making motion picture film. The lossy Dolby Digital sound is mostly
talking, so it is not very strong, but it is well recorded. Extras include interviews with actors, behind
the scenes and trailers.
- Ricky Chiang
