Search - Girls Kissing on DVD

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Robert M. Penna | Albany, NY | 12/15/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

""Girls Kissing" is a "documentary" that explores little, informs even less, and leaves the viewer (particularly the male viewer) with the feeling that not only has he been had, but that he has been insulted in the process.

It is never quite clear just what this documentary is actually supposed to be documenting. By turns it focuses on the increase in lesbian scenes and references in popular movies and TV, upon the male fascination with lesbian and bisexual women, on the increased willingness of young women to explore and engage in this behavior, and upon the reaction of the gay community to all of this.

The director's short, choppy style unfortunately only adds to this confusion by bouncing the film (and the viewer) between exposition and interviews with an array of oddball "experts" on the subject of lesbian sex. Among them are aged British female psychologists who seems to believe there is nothing wrong with men that could not be cured by having their penises cut off, a lesbian entrepreneur who sells an amazing array of designer vibrators and dildos (and who also thinks all men's penises should be cut off), a porn producer, a porn star, a director/producer of movies with lesbian themes, several "typical" males, and a young woman (the film's central "story") who is just SO tickled with herself for being bisexual. Oh, yes, and we also get to hear from this girl's boyfriend, who goes on about the special demands and benefits of having a bisexual girlfriend.

The one fact established by the film is that there has been an increase in the number of lesbian and female bisexual scenes and references in popular TV and movies. No numbers are given, but the impression is made that this is certainly so. But when the film tries to explore this and give a reason for the phenomenon, the result is a muddle of conflicting opinions that leave the viewer to believe whichever explanation fits with his/her preconceived notions. While there are suggestions that this is all being fueled by lesbians' more pronounced place in the TV and film market, the overarching impression is that most of what is seen by mainstream audiences is there because MALE viewers find it titillating and want to see it. Unmistakable is the message that all such males are pathetic, sexually stunted, oppressive and irredeemable lowlifes.

By the time the film comes to an abrupt and bewildering end, this viewer had had enough, especially of the self impressed bisexual young woman upon which so much of the film is centered. The really interesting themes that the film might have explored, notions such as the difference between the male view of lesbian sexuality and the truly LESBIAN perspective on the subject, or the degree to which young women are engaging in this behavior because it is currently faddish, were left completely unmentioned and unexplored.

In the book, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," the central character woos a young women and then rejects her as unworthy when she succumbs to his seductions, BECAUSE she gave in to his seductions. This film is much the same. On the one hand, it film establishes an unmistakably scolding tone that none-too-gently admonishes straight male viewers for any prurient interest they may have in girl-girl sexuality; but at the same time it smirks at the fact that this very interest is probably what got the viewer to watch the film in the first place. This film fails to deliver for almost every audience one can think of. Straight males won't find the pay-off they might expect, straight females will probably remain unconvinced, and few lesbians, I would think, will find it particularly informative, uplifting or empowering. It is largely a waste of everyone's time.
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Piece of junk!!

M. Brener | Cali | 09/21/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This "film," if you can even call it that, was so poorly shot, edited, sound boarded, and produced, that it almost entirely eclipsed the fact that they completely short-changed what could have been a fantastic premise. The subject of the commodification of female-on-female intimacy is a broad and fascinating one, which this piece of bunk completely failed to represent. Were I one of the few featured interviews of any value in this work, I would be embarrassed to have been included in the final product. A complete waste of 68 minutes. I wanted to watch a documentary about commodification, not an interview with a ninety-year-old radio show host, who by the way took the film so seriously that she proceeded to bake while delivering her theses!

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