![\"boymeetsgirl\"](\"http:\/\/smugfilm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/boymeetsgirl.jpg\")
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Boy Meets Girl<\/a> (2014) Spoiler-free.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Gender is weird. Think about it: there\u2019s two types of a being, and they have to come together in order to procreate. That\u2019s just strange as hell. Like, why isn\u2019t it that there\u2019s just one type of being, and when it wants to make more beings, it just makes them? There\u2019s probably some evolutionary reason for this I guess, like that sexual reproduction makes evolution faster because DNA recombines as opposed to asexual reproduction where DNA doesn\u2019t recombine and thus evolution takes way longer (I checked Yahoo Answers<\/a>) but still, it\u2019s weird. I don\u2019t care that it\u2019s why we\u2019re here and why we continue to be here\u2014it just doesn\u2019t jive with our modern minds, conceptually. We like things instant<\/i>. It\u2019s lame that I can\u2019t just tell my body to make a baby and then a baby happens. Oh well, maybe in the next update.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not just that we\u2019re all a bunch of spoiled technobrats, though\u2014love itself <\/i>makes us realize how dumb gender is. People don\u2019t fall in love with gender<\/em>\u2014we\u2019re not a bunch of wandering automatons with procreation as our sole directive. We\u2019re philosophical beings looking for a person that our soul gels with. The downside of that beautiful reality is that sometimes, said person isn\u2019t someone we\u2019re sexually attracted to\u2014whatever, that\u2019s what friends are for. Another downside is that maybe said person is someone you are <\/i>sexually attracted to, but they are of a gender you are not used to<\/i> being sexually attracted to. That can get messy.<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s the thing, though. There\u2019s a point of time in everyone\u2019s life\u2014whether you\u2019re gay, straight, or bi\u2014where even the gender, or genders, that you are currently sexually attracted to, you weren\u2019t used to<\/i> being sexually attracted to, because you weren\u2019t used to being sexually attracted to anyone at all.<\/i> This period is called early adolescence<\/i>, and everyone goes through it. And because everyone goes through it, everyone should be able to relate to this film, no matter what their sexual orientation.<\/span><\/p>\n On top of that, when you think about it, falling in love in general <\/i>is like falling in love with a gender you\u2019re not ready to fall in love with, because it\u2019s always just that scary, and new, and strange, and confusing, even if you\u2019ve fallen in love several times before. Eric Schaeffer understands this, and has imbued this seemingly specifically-themed film with universal themes. As a result, Boy Meets Girl transcends its Queer Cinema sub-genre and has more to say about love than the vast majority of romance movies.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Far too often, love is displayed on film as a no-brainer\u2014we see two attractive people meet by chance, and of course, they fall for each other. Conflict arises only afterward, and is only ever logistical in nature. In real life, every<\/i> love is a battle, right from the start. It\u2019s a mental blitzkrieg in which your values, dreams, ideals, and beliefs are challenged\u2014and that\u2019s just within your own <\/i>brain. I\u2019m not even counting the livened debates that ensue from your incongruent areas, of which there are always some. And when you think about it, how are said incongruent areas not unlike two dicks mashing together, wishing to God that the other was a vagina? Sorry, I had to go for the metaphor. You get the point already though, so I\u2019ll stop. Besides, there\u2019s plenty more about this film to talk about.<\/span><\/p>\n The lead actress, Michelle Hendley, is a force to be reckoned with. From her very first scene she\u2019s a star, immediately grabbing your attention with her unabashedly real delivery and presence. Watching her make a cappuccino while bantering with a customer is a delight, and you almost wish it were a real place that you could be a regular at, so you could overhear her on a daily basis.<\/span><\/p>\n The supporting cast are mere planets orbiting around the sun that is her, but hell, planets are cool too (science fact: we live on one!) and Eric gives each a chance to shine in their own right and showcase their range\u2014sometimes unexpectedly so. One of the people in this film, I wrote off as dead weight, and then halfway in I discovered I was being deliberately lead to believe that so that I could then be wowed. I love when that happens\u2014last time it did, I was watching that show Derek<\/b>. I won\u2019t tell you which character it eventually happened with, but if you\u2019ve seen the show, you know who I\u2019m talking about.<\/span><\/p>\n It takes great writing to pull off twists and turns of that nature on a character level. You really have to understand motivation<\/em>\u2014why people do what they do. That\u2019s something that\u2019s missing from a lot of films\u2014\u2018bad\u2019 characters in particular are often bad for boring, ‘seven deadly sins’-esque reasons (greed, lust, envy, etcetera). In reality, most people are generally good<\/em>, and do bad things only out of impulse\u2014they aren\u2019t thinking, they\u2019re confused, they\u2019re scared. Douglas Sirk was the king of showcasing this aspect of human nature, and in fact, this kinda feels like a modern day Sirk movie, which is refreshing. It has that great, swirling vibe where you\u2019ve got this fairly small circle of people in a quaint setting, and everyone is given opportunities to do the right thing, chances to step up to the plate and redeem themselves\u2014the drama and suspense lies in\u00a0whether they will choose to rise to the occasion or not.<\/span><\/p>\n Similarly refreshing is how unabashedly sex-positive this movie is. The way sex is portrayed in film and TV these days, its easy to forget that it can be a way for people to connect deeply. Often it\u2019s just shown as guttural, empty satisfaction, as though that is all it can ever be. Even more bizarre is that most of the filmmakers depicting sex in this way are liberals\u2014I don\u2019t know when the hell sex as a beautiful thing became ‘old-fashioned\u2019 and ‘uncool’, but it seemingly has, and that needs to be stopped. Here\u2019s hoping this movie will in some small way help flip things back to normal.<\/span><\/p>\n Because of its sexual content and adult language, this movie will probably get an R-rating, which is a shame, because I can think of no better film for a teenager to watch. We live in a world where PG-13 movies dripping with violence and destruction are encouraged entertainment for budding minds and bodies, while movies like these are shunned from society, relegated to the \u2018Special Interest\u2019 section of the chain movie-and-music store, or tossed without care into the pig trough that is Netflix. Thankfully, these needle-in-a-haystack movies always seem to have a universe-guided homing beacon attached to them, silently guiding the right person at the right time towards finding it.<\/span><\/p>\n Keep this one on your radar\u2014it may not find its audience right away, but I do believe it\u2019ll at some point go down as not only an important LGBT film, but one of the most important romance films of the last 20 years.<\/span><\/p>\n 4 out of 5 Codys.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Boy Meets Girl<\/a> (2014) Spoiler-free.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Gender is weird. Think about it: there\u2019s two types of a being, and they have to come together in order to procreate. That\u2019s just strange as hell. Like, why isn\u2019t it that there\u2019s just one type of being, and when it wants to make more beings, it just makes them? There\u2019s probably some evolutionary reason for this I guess, like that sexual reproduction makes evolution faster because DNA recombines as opposed to asexual reproduction where DNA doesn\u2019t recombine and thus evolution takes way longer (I checked Yahoo Answers<\/a>) but still, it\u2019s weird. I don\u2019t care that it\u2019s why we\u2019re here and why we continue to be here\u2014it just doesn\u2019t jive with our modern minds, conceptually. We like things instant<\/i>. It\u2019s lame that I can\u2019t just tell my body to make a baby and then a baby happens. Oh well, maybe in the next update.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not just that we\u2019re all a bunch of spoiled technobrats, though\u2014love itself <\/i>makes us realize how dumb gender is. People don\u2019t fall in love with gender<\/em>\u2014we\u2019re not a bunch of wandering automatons with procreation as our sole directive. We\u2019re philosophical beings looking for a person that our soul gels with. The downside of that beautiful reality is that sometimes, said person isn\u2019t someone we\u2019re sexually attracted to\u2014whatever, that\u2019s what friends are for. Another downside is that maybe said person is someone you are <\/i>sexually attracted to, but they are of a gender you are not used to<\/i> being sexually attracted to. That can get messy.<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s the thing, though. There\u2019s a point of time in everyone\u2019s life\u2014whether you\u2019re gay, straight, or bi\u2014where even the gender, or genders, that you are currently sexually attracted to, you weren\u2019t used to<\/i> being sexually attracted to, because you weren\u2019t used to being sexually attracted to anyone at all.<\/i> This period is called early adolescence<\/i>, and everyone goes through it. And because everyone goes through it, everyone should be able to relate to this film, no matter what their sexual orientation.<\/span><\/p>\n On top of that, when you think about it, falling in love in general <\/i>is like falling in love with a gender you\u2019re not ready to fall in love with, because it\u2019s always just that scary, and new, and strange, and confusing, even if you\u2019ve fallen in love several times before. Eric Schaeffer understands this, and has imbued this seemingly specifically-themed film with universal themes. As a result, Boy Meets Girl transcends its Queer Cinema sub-genre and has more to say about love than the vast majority of romance movies.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1],"tags":[4352,4356,4355,4354,4358,4357,32,522,4353,3323],"class_list":["post-5183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allposts","category-codysreviews","tag-boy-meets-girl","tag-boy-meets-girl-eric-schaeffer","tag-boy-meets-girl-film","tag-boy-meets-girl-movie","tag-boy-meets-girl-movie-review","tag-boy-meets-girl-review","tag-cody-clarke","tag-eric-schaeffer","tag-eric-schaeffer-boy-meets-girl","tag-smug-film-smugfilm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5183"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5795,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183\/revisions\/5795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smugfilm.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/b>Written and Directed by Eric Schaeffer
\n101 min.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Written and Directed by Eric Schaeffer
\n101 min.<\/p>\n