Whirlwind - the Movie

I liked this movie. It was an entertaining 99 minutes. It took me into a different world that turned out not that different at all. And all of the characters were likable, even the villain, though they all had their issues. It's not a great movie and I'm going to explain why I think that, but I did want to say it is well worth seeing.

This was another feature in the Anchorage Pride Fest Film Festival at Out North. (The link shows the current scheduled events, so if you look at this after June 28, you probably won't get anything about the film festival.) No one's competing for awards, but rather it's a chance for people in Anchorage to see films that wouldn't normally be shown here, or we wouldn't see until years from now. This film, for example, was first shown in New York and L.A. this month.

I enjoyed watching Whirlwind. It's not a great film. It's not even a good film, as films go. OK, I'm picky. With a good film, I get so caught up in the film that I forget I'm watching a movie. The actors ARE the characters. The music helps tell the story, but it never calls attention to itself. The same with the camera work. It moves the story along, but not in ways that pull you out of the story to think, "Wow wasn't that a cool shot?"

But, I enjoyed this one. I like the look of not as polished independent films. You don't need $100 million to tell a good story. If we rate movies on a scale of product per dollar spent making it, this would be much better than most Hollywood movies.

The acting was good most of the time, but there were a few times when I felt the actor and the character separated. words were being recited rather than spoken naturally.

That the story follows a formula, by itself, isn't a problem. But it shouldn't be quite so close to the surface. And the explanation for Drake's behavior, and his one-night stand counterpart in the group (he's the one character whose name escapes me - Desmond is in my mind, but I'd remember that if it were really Desmond), were the opposite of subtle.

Here we have a group that appears to be working well. Then something comes in to disturb and test them. They face the challenge and overcome it. It made me think of the tv show Friends. And The Big Chill. There the friends had scattered and it's the death of one of the group that brings them back together and tests them. Whirlwind's group is five gay men and a couple of women who sometimes hang out with them. They're planning a 25th Anniversary party for a gay couple they know, when sexy Drake slips into their circle and attempts to destroy it by exploiting each of their weaknesses. (I'm not giving anything away that wasn't on the blurb in the brochure, and that you can't figure out pretty quickly.)

I knew exactly where things were going. But it was ok. I wanted to see how it got there. I cared about the characters. I think that was the strength of the movie. They were all real people with a real mix of strengths and weaknesses trying to be happy. We can all identify. Not every movie has to end badly. It's just when that happy ending is totally improbable that there's a problem. Here there is no reason why these folks shouldn't get back together and shouldn't be stronger for the challenge.

This is NOT a gay movie. It's a movie about human beings who just happen to be gay. One could change the script slightly and film it over again with completely straight characters.





I had my Canon Powershot with me at the movie, but after emailing back and forth with Rob Tate, one of the directors of Eleven Minutes [see added comments under the YouTube trailer that replaces the video I posted], I've decided to try out just sticking with the trailers I can find online rather than using my own video. I think the video is useful in conveying the feel of the movie. While I understand Rob's concern that the quality of the video I post is terrible and doesn't reflect what he worked so hard to create, I think mine gives the feel of being in the theater watching the movie and the readers here understand that. And as I look at the trailer for Whirlwind (and this is no different from other movies) it also distorts the movie in a different way.

I don't know how television movie reviewers select the video they show in their reviews, or if they just take what is given to them. But it seems to me that if you are going to review a movie, you should be picking out the shots you want to talk about. Of course, if you have a whole movie to choose from, it could take a while to pick exactly the right shots. Fortunately, my memory disk doesn't hold too much video so I have to make do with the shots I get by trying to anticipate what might be good. An iffy proposition at best. Anyway, I don't know that my clips are more of a distortion than the trailer. Each just distorts the film in different ways.

The Film Panel Note Taker has an interview with Director Richard LeMay & Screenwriter Jason Brown. The Rob Tate link above goes to a brief YouTube video of the two directors and Jay McCarroll.

[Update: In my review of Before I Forget (Avant Que Joublie), a couple days after seeing Whirlwind, I was able to explain why my review of Whirlwind was just lukewarm. "Before I Forgot" was a much more penetrating look at the human condition.]