Watch Strange Frame: Love & Sax For Free

the audience applauded

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

For fans of Frank Herbert's "Dune," Aeon Flux (to a degree), "Across the Universe" (the musical, and up to the part it started to drag), and "Triplets of Belleville," I recommend this movie.It takes place in a netherworld (or our world) future, 7 centuries down the line, and I thought of "Dune" in that there's a new system in place for all inhabitants.I thought of "Across the Universe" because of its use of music to disjointedly establish the events leading up to the climax. Next, I was reminded of "Triplets of Belleville" because of its use of visuals (sans sound) to construct the mood of the scene. There is some Aeon Flux-ish stuff in there, but not too much; Aeon Flux fans are warned. Just some scenes for you to remember those late nights watching MTV to catch an episode before the hour was run out.In all, I believe this movie was such a fantastic artistic feat, I am not sure whether calling it an "LGBT movie" does it any justice. Rather, I found it was a very ambitious animated movie project that worked very well.

This trippy animated feature brings to mind stuff like Fantastic Planet and Heavy Metal, and I imagine lots of drugs will be done while watching it. I don't partake, but I enjoyed the mindbendingness unaltered plenty. The animation style is simple but beautiful. It's pretty difficult to describe, but the trailer can be watched on IMDb or Youtube. It's a lesbian love story between a saxophonist and a singer/guitar player who live on the moons of Jupiter in the 28th Century. The singer, Naia, is targeted by evil record producers, and her lover, Parker, is left out in the cold trying to figure out how to win her love back. The story isn't entirely coherent, but no matter. It's a rich visual and aural experience that left me breathless. It streams on Netflix and is highly recommended.

I have to question whether the film that I just watched is the same one that other reviewers here are labelling "visionary", "groundbreaking" and "unique". I like a lot of strange and unusual films, but there was just nothing terribly compelling to be found here.While I admire the film for it's same-sex love story and the director's attempt to employ young people domestically in its production, claims of delivering "a dreamlike tale unlike anything you've ever seen" quickly fall flat. The story rife with clichés, from the rich-kid-run-away protagonist, to her under-class rebel love interest, dystopian future setting, and the downward spiral into the world of rock-and-roll, sex, drugs, exploitation, and broken dreams. I wouldn't call the imagery anything groundbreaking. It was all reminiscent of Wizards and Heavy Metal, with lengthy, brightly coloured drug-trip sequences.I might have enjoyed it more had there been any attempt to evolve beyond the clichés... But there was nothing innovative to be found here. Vapid, one-dimensional characters and plot chug along in perfectly predictable fashion until the film's stereotypically cheesy "generic art film fade-to-black with indeterminate character fate"(TM) conclusion.Overall it can be summed up as a trippy stoner art film with sci-fi overtones. No new ground is broken here. Nothing new or innovative is explored or attempted. The characters and plot are all tired and generic. All the themes and storytelling in this film have been done before, and done better.

From the opening to the close I found myself in the constant motion of this film. Each detail compelled me to want more. Strange Frame is twisted and foreign yet the film maker calls me home. We have no earth but we have taken all the familiar virtues and evils with us to a new world. With unlikely heroes,gay, crippled, broken, addicted, colored and colorful I am totally under the spell of it. Abandon your prejudices and Strange Frame makes it easy as it weaves a cloth of seduction in your mind. It is a different way for the hero to get the girl. See it and come away humming the soundtrack. And by the way, that soundtrack is a cross between down home blues and sultry jazz clues. I cannot wait to own this film in my personal collection.