Ugly to look at and seemingly long as hell, "By Hook or By Crook," nonetheless, is fascinating. This is, perhaps, the first feature film made by and about women, presumably lesbians, who like to dress up in male drag. I am a gay man but I have about zero knowledge of such things. It is a particularly fringe part of gay society and one that gay men are not often all that privy to. On some TV shock talk show ("Ricki Lake?" "Jenny Jones?") I have heard that females who dress up as men and appear masculine are called "Studs." I don't know if this is really true or not.

"By Hook or By Crook" concerns Shy (Silas Howard), a young "man" orphaned and left to his own. Losing his house after his father dies, Shy takes it on the road. "He" (I'm going to stop using quotation marks now - assume that gender and pronouns are meaningless here) saves another young man, Valentine (director Harry/Mary Dodge), when he is being beat up in a parking lot. The two forge a friendship and Shy meets Val's lover named Billie (Stanya Kahn).

Valentine is a very sad character. Searching for his birth mother, Val has also been in mental institutions and seems to have an acute case of OCD. What's most troubling and sad about the film is that the "genderbender" characters, the females in drag, are really dysfunctional and unstable people. There are no normal characters. Shy may be the most normal, but even he has trouble. A con artist and a drifter, Shy seems incapable of living in the "normal" world. The sad thing about this film is that it presents these type of gay fringe characters as being incapable of surviving in the real world. Whether this is society which will not afford them access or their own inability to cope is never quite clear. But the film, at least in my eyes, is troubling because it suggests that a female who wishes to dress and act in a masculine manner, so much so that she becomes a male in others' eyes, is unstable to begin with. This "condition" requires that something be wrong with the person to begin with. As if no normal, sensible female would ever attempt to live this way.

Still, Shy and Val really grow on us. These characters are incredibly interesting and easily work their way into our hearts. We desperately want to see Val happy and mentally healthy. She is so troubled and so in need of help that we almost want to jump into the screen and hug her and take her to a mental health facility where she can get the help she so obviously needs. Likewise, Shy just needs a break. If someone would just point him in the right direction and give him a chance, he could make it easily.

It is no great stretch to give the actors in the film overflowing kudos. Howard and Dodge are remarkable here. I met Dodge briefly after the screening of the film at SXSW2002 and she seems a perfectly normal and sane person. She must be to have directed and acted in this film. Her talent is immense. To meet her in person and then consider the character of Val, on she creates on screen, is mind-boggling. This person has remarkable talent. What a treat to see this film.

Howard, meanwhile, is drench in talent as well. Her Shy is beautiful, fawn- like, desperate and loving. Looking like the young Wayne Newton (perhaps with a little k.d. lang thrown in), Howard's wide and innocent eyes peer out from the screen like high-beam headlights on an abandoned road. Again, the desire to reach onto the screen and hug her is overwhelming. These characters created for the film take us in and hit our hearts hard. If only some voice of reason could intervene. If only someone who could help cared.

Shot on DV and running 95 minutes, the film isn't so much masterly as amazing. Only in the realm of the DV revolution could a film about such fringe characters even exist. Dodge appeared at SXSW having a scruffy beard much like her character of Val does in the film. How much of "By Hook or By Crook" is real and how much imagined? The film is a blurry line of gender, sexuality and cinematics. It is, perhaps, the best DV film I've seen since "cicadas." It is certainly the most revolutionary DV film I've ever seen.

And it is a film that must be seen. dodge is a remarkable actor. Her work on screen here is flawless. Behind the camera and in the editing room, she may need to hone her skills a bit more. But her film is one of the most interesting and troubling films you will see this year.

In the end, "By Hook or By Crook" simply reminds us what the best gay films always remind us: Friendship is perhaps the most important thing in a gay persons life. We are small groups of post-nuclear families that look out for one and other. Sometimes, our friends are all we have. The film ends with a hopefulness that negates much of reality. But it also ends with a promise of friendship that will endure, a promise of a family awaiting in the epilogue no matter what.

Note:

The film's sound design is pretty good with the exception of the bombastic indie alt_rock songs that insist on jarring our sensibilities continually through the film. Not to Dodge: Turn these songs down! They almost continually ruin the momentum your film begins to gather through its run time.

Report Card Script: A- Acting: A+ Cinematography\Lighting: C Special Effects\Make Up: B Music: D- Final Grade: A

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