Dusting Off The Shelf: Letter Z!!!

13 Nov

And finally we’ve reached the end of this series. Perhaps I’ll do it again. As noted in my last post, HQ recently moved and in doing so I found even more DVDs that I own and have never watched. I really need to stop doing that. And to end the series, I thought we’d go out on a silly note- I give you Zerophilia.

Synopsis: A teen comedy that’s a little… different. Luke, is unsure of his masculinity and wakes up one day to find he’s now a girl… Not a body switcheroo story, instead Luke and a few others are “zerophiliacs”, with the ability to switch gender.

Why I chose this film: I wanted to see this one after catching a preview and seeing Kyle Schmid, a young actor that I’ve enjoyed in other roles (see this post on Blood Ties). Though completely fictional, I thought it seemed like an amusing tale (and not the typical teen comedy of the mid-2000s, which were- let’s be honest- more and more disgusting). Overall, I enjoyed the film. It is by no means an award winning film- the gender changes were done better in Orlando– but it was interesting to see Luke have to adjust, especially with Max (Schmid’s character) being so comfortable. I think I would like to see this sort of “power” in a serious science fiction story, or even within a leading Star Trek-type character. Not an androgynous character, not a parasite in a host, and not someone who can appear as the other gender to fool others, but someone whose entire gender changes and thus their hormones and identity switches. How would this effect how they interact with others? I mean, there are frogs and a few other species that change gender for survival of the species. We kind of brush it off as not an issue because they are animals, but what if a human could do that (and I don’t mean someone who identifies as transgender- someone who was a guy today, a girl tomorrow, and back to being male for the weekend)? Whoa, did not mean to get deep with this one- the film is too silly for that.

One thing that made me laugh was how even though the zerophiliacs are both male and female, they treat the two as separate to a point. To outsiders each has their own personality, however to people like them they are just the single person, both male and female.

Will I watch it again: You know what… I probably will. Like I said, I thought it was cute.

Why you should watch it too (or run far away!): This film isn’t for everyone. I liked it. Many people will probably think it’s stupid. Meh. That’s never stopped me from liking something. At it’s heart it is a romantic comedy, if that helps. And it’s cute.