It was definitely ladies’ night at the Castro Theatre on Friday, as the Frameline Film Fest played host to the world premiere of the sexy lesbian comedy, And Then Came Lola; if you didn’t already know that And Then Came Lola was a lesbian movie, you certainly could have guessed after spotting the line of women stretching down the sidewalk, doubling back, and snaking around the corner.
A light-hearted homage to the 1998 German film, Run Lola Run, And Then Came Lola’s story centers on Lola, a San Francisco lesbian with commitment issues. She has to get some photos to her girlfriend at an important client meeting, with dire consequences if she fails. This has Lola running all over town, from Cole Valley to the Castro, Dolores Park, the Embarcadero, and Alamo Square.
I can forgive the nonsensical geographic route she takes (someone get Lola a GPS!) but I couldn’t forgive the incredibly tenuous narrative thread that holds the movie together. A la Groundhog Day, Lola relives the event in three chapters — in each chapter, the small details supposedly change the outcome, although, for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what the big difference was in the first and second scenarios.
The movie doesn’t spend a lot of time on character development (in the Q&A after the movie, one of the filmmakers conceded that some character/story development is sacrificed by replaying Lola’s adventure out three times) but there is plenty of footage of heaving bosoms, low-cut straining blouses, and girl on girl snogging. Watching three really lovely ladies feel each other up while wearing bras, I couldn’t help but feel I was watching the director’s cut of the Victoria’s Secret commercial that straight men and lesbians dream about.
