Stephanie's QFest Diary for Saturday, July 18 – Sunday, July 19

Films: I Can't Think Straight, Changing Spots, Training Rules, St. Trinian's
Future screenings: None

I Can't Think Straight
This clever film has all the makings of a good girl-meets-girl love story. Gorgeous, wealthy Jordanian Tala is engaged for the fourth time when she meets doe-eyed beauty Leyla in London. The two become fast friends, then lovers (in a smoldering scene that seemed to leave half the theater breathless). Leyla comes out to her traditional Indian parents, but will Tala have the courage to follow suit? Aside from the stunning leads, Leyla's sassy sister and Tala's bitchy mother provide more than enough reason to see this film; both have spot-on comedic timing that makes the already funny script even more so. The artfully shot film is also a rich visual feast.
Festival Rating: Excellent

Changing Spots
Molly is a former child star trying to revive her acting career. Her partner Peg is newly pregnant. Sparks fly between the two of them at the outset of the film, then quickly cool as a wedding invitation from a long-lost (but not lost enough) cousin throws Molly's whole world off kilter. Soon, she's off on a solitary road trip to confront the ghosts of her past, while Peg does a little soul searching of her own. The film was a bit slow to build, and a dozen or so people actually walked out of the theater before it hit its stride. That's a shame, because they missed what turned out to be a pretty good story.
Festival Rating: Good

Training Rules
It's almost impossible to imagine that a blatantly homophobic coach could be allowed to keep her job when she repeatedly and openly discriminated against her players in direct opposition to the university's anti-discrimination policy. And yet, that's exactly what happened at Penn State for over 25 years. Jennifer Harris was the brave student athlete who finally pressed charges against coach Rene Portland for her "no lesbians" training rule, a rule she actually used in recruitment efforts. The case settled out of court, and under the terms of the settlement, Harris was not allowed to discuss it, posing a huge challenge for filmmaker Dee Mosbacher (who received the inaugural Barbara Gittings award at the screening). But through interviews with Jennifer's parents, former Penn State basketball players, coaches and others, Mosbacher pieced the story together so well that the viewer almost doesn't notice. Portland is no longer at Penn State, but homophobia is still an issue in women's sports at colleges around the country. This film offers a good look at the deleterious effects it has on individual athletes and their teams.
Festival Rating: Very Good

St. Trinian's
Take one girls' boarding school. Add a vodka still, a phone sex line, some shrunken heads, macabre art, hidden cameras, brutish field hockey players, a sex-crazed cairn terrier and Rupert Everett in a dress. Remove all sense of propriety. Stir... no, shake. You might end up with something akin to St. Trinian's, one of the most entertaining movies I've seen all year. The school is under seige, by both the bankers who want to recoup the many thousands of pounds they're owed and the minister of education, who wants to make an example of the out-of-control institution. But the St. Trinian's juvenile delinquent denizens have other plans, and they cook up a scheme to steal Vermeer's "Girl with the Pearl Earring" to save their school (or, as one of the girls says, "Oh. My. God. You want to steal Scarlett Johansson?"). Keep an eye out for this one, as it's good enough (and features enough big-name talent, including Everett, Colin Firth and Mischa Barton) that it will likely end up in theaters soon.
Festival Rating: Excellent

Image Credit: Flickr user pedrosimoes7