Summer blockbuster season is well underway at movie theaters across the country. Current options for the movie-going queer include Henry Cavill’s steel abs, Channing Tatum protecting the president and Melissa McCarthy’s police officer pratfalls. However, it is a long-held opinion that queers are generally more appreciative of independent cinema than straights. If you’re gearing up for a staycation this summer, here are three independent video-on-demand picks.
Compliance (2012)
Based on true events, several moviegoers walked out of Craig Zobel’s docudrama. It’s not that Compliance is very disturbing, but this little-known indie from 2012 is very uncomfortable to watch.
Dreama Walker (of the regrettably cancelled Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23) stars as a young fast food employee who is sexually humiliated when her moronic manager, played by Ann Dowd, blindly believes that a man who calls the restaurant is a police officer and Walker’s character stole money from a customer’s purse. Dowd won the National Board of Review award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
The real-life incidents, known as the strip search prank call scam, occurred between 1994 and 2004. David Stewart, a Corrections Corporation of America employee was arrested then acquitted of all charges in 2006.
Compliance’s plot comes from one call made to a Mount Washington, Kentucky McDonald’s on April 9, 2004, which resulted in the employee and manager successfully suing the company.
For our readers who are into girls, the beautiful Walker does have some nude scenes, but they are possibly the least sexual topless scenes ever filmed.
Detention (2011)
Produced by and starring The Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson, I was surprised I’d never heard of this Frankenstein of a movie before I caught it while browsing through Netflix.
Detention is equal parts slasher, parody and science-fiction.
I definitely could have done without the science-fiction section, but its Detention‘s originality that redeems this independent ( it cost 10 million, which is considered independent in 2013) film.
Detention follows a group of self-aware high school students who are obsessed with ‘90s culture as someone impersonating the killer from a film within the film stalks them. Time travel and aliens make inexplicable appearances near the finale.
Look for a vampire Ron Jeremy in a cameo where he destroys a porn stars’ breasts.
The Day (2011)
Filmed on the outskirts of Ottawa, The Day is a lot better than its $20,984 box office gross suggests.
The Day stars Dominic Monaghan (Lost), Ashley Bell (The Last Exorcism), Shannyn Sossamon (One Missed Call) and Shawn Ashmore (the X-Men franchise) as a group of starving nomads who struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic landscape (again, the rural parts of Ottawa.)
Detractors have criticized the film for ripping off one aspect of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. While this may be technically true, The Day offers some surprising plot twists and an ultra-violent resolution that would liven up any staycation.
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