Men Cry Bullets . Austin Chronicle . 03-30-98

Men Cry Bullets

DIRECTED BY: Tamara Hernandez

REVIEWED: 03-30-98

What kind of men cry bullets? Tamara Hernandez's edgy Men Cry Bullets, which won the narrative feature competition at this year's SXSW Film Festival, isn't concerned with that question. That's partly because the man in this film, Billy, is busy being chased by bullets. Billy enters the film on shaky ground as a budding, ersatz drag queen, though he seems certain to become a quick study in that esteemed discipline before he happens to meet Gloria (Honey Lauren), a full-throttle bitchy sexpot who at 33 still lives at home. Gloria is an insecure, needy woman whose loyalty and exquisite shame for her actions instill ready emotional involvement from the viewer. Gloria's boyfriend, the "paperboy," kisses Billy during a drag performance, which swiftly positions him as the unenviable object of Gloria's rage; naturally, Gloria and Billy consequently fall in love; then, of course, Gloria's vapid country cousin Lydia visits, throwing a blond wrench into the chemistry between Gloria and Billy. Analyzed as such, the plot events seem laughably unreal, but since the finest element among many in Men Cry Bullets is its mercurial tragicomedy, all is believable, if wildly dramatic. Though Jeri Ryan as Lydia pushes the Southern accent a bit too far, the actors are intensely engaging and the film's vibrant palette of colors is cleanly and beautifully shot, which helps make the over-the-top storyline digestible.

--Claiborne Smith

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