VIDEO: The trailer for Fruit Fly
What Boston LGBT Film Festival would be complete without a campy, slightly smutty musical? That's a proposition we won't have to ponder this year, as writer/director/musician H.P. Mendoza's Fruit Fly is on the roster.
The film revolves around Bethesda (L.A. Renigen), a performance artist and fag hag who moves into a San Francisco art commune and pines for her long-lost Filipina mother. Some viewers might protest the leaden dialogue or the vanishing plot, but it's refreshing to see a musical that takes itself so lightly. (Consider the lyric "If you're looking for a word that rhymes with 'gay,' don't bother. Just use 'gay.' '')
Imagine Rent squeezed through a cheesecloth until all the depressing pulp is strained out and only light-hearted froth is left behind. What's more, Fruit Fly's chiptune score is infectious, and its bizarre interstitial effects — like turning the SF skyline into a game of Tetris — make for some tasty eye candy.