The Girl
The stylish opening credits--featuring wisps of smoke curling sensually up and sideways--declareThe Girl's intentions: This is going to be a modern film noir in which compulsive passions lead to violence and disaster. The narrator, dressed in the chic lesbian butch uniform of a dark two-piece suit and a crisp white shirt, has become obsessed with a femme nightclub singer with rapturous long curly hair, known only as the Girl. Despite the Girl's initial reluctance, the two begin an affair, only to have it threatened by a vicious nightclub owner, who feels that the singer is his property. Don't watchThe Girlexpecting a driving plot; the movie circles around its lovers, letting their evasive conversations and steamy lovemaking (The Girlfeatures a lot of nudity and some fairly explicit sex) tell the tale. The actors and the cinematography are gorgeous.--Bret Fetzer