By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Samuel Kay Forrest
Starring: Andriana Manfredi | Beatrix Michelet | Enzo de Liguoro | Ian Loughran | Javier Taboada | Jurjen van Nes | Marie Céline Yildirim | Samuel Kay Forrest
Country: united_states
Year: 2021
Running time: 89
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7708648/reference
Michael says: “After appearing in a handful of shorts and supporting parts in low-budget features, actor Samuel Kay Forrest decided to produce, write, and direct his own film. In HIPBEAT, a love letter to the modern-day Berlin for young people, Angus plays an Irish man living in Berlin, with a hot, sexy girlfriend, and an anarchic activism, that at first seems as if it will be the main thrust of the film. But about twenty minutes in, Angus sneaks into the dressing room of a drag queen getting ready for her show, and reveals that he is learning more about his gender-identity, and while still very much in love with his girlfriend, sleeps around with many people of both genders, and has their own inner drag queen inside longing to make an appearance. From there, the film follows Angus has he tries to both rationalize his polyamory (Angus — it’s not the multiple partners that’s a bad idea, it’s the lying to your girlfriend that’s the problem) and deal with the female side of his personality. While parts of the film have a documentary feel, and it may effectively capture what it’s like to be a club kid in Berlin, it’s overly preachy, the dialogue is clumsy, and Forrest has clearly bitten off more than he can chew. The one rather amazing and central scene involving Angus finally telling his girlfriend Angie (Marie Céline Yildirim) about his gender confusion and multiple sex partners that unfurls in one long, uncomfortable take with long awkward pauses, and staggering shifts in emotional states of the two actors. It’s too bad Yildirim didn’t have a better script and better director to guide her or she might have been the breakthrough star of this film. 2 cats“