After Blue

One of Bill Hader’s most enduring offerings is his Saturday Night Live character, Stefan. Stefan’s bit is introducing weird clubs with descriptions of wholly random shit. After Blue (Dirty Paradise) is the answer to what one of those weird clubs would look like. This film has everything; impractical gucci brand future guns, all-female future dystopian societies, threatening yet exciting heterosexual tentacles oral sex, a plot-relevant singular hairy arm. After Blue is weird as shit and I’m here for it.

After Blue takes place on a distant planet where only females can survive. Something to do with hair kills humans who don’t have ovaries. On this futuristic planet, the teenage Roxy finds a woman buried in the sand. Roxy releases the woman who is a violent criminal but possible messiah named Kate Bush. She has one hairy arm and an eye for her genitals. The release of Kate Bush causes Roxy’s community to shun her and her hairdresser mother. So, Roxy and her mum set off on an adventure to recapture Kate Bush. Despite their plans of capture, Roxy sure enjoys masturbating to the image of Kate Bush (among other weird images).

Initially, I wasn’t sure if After Blue qualifies as a WLW film. It’s weird, French sci-fi so gender and sexuality are ambiguous and beyond my 21st century cisgender grasp. But, it’s an all-female society and the film can’t be described as heterosexual. The one “straight” encounter is between Roxy and a man with tentacles for genitals. She enjoys the brief experience nut this sure doesn’t stop Roxy from fantasizing about Kate Bush. Additionally, Roxy’s mother finds romance with a woman who by the end has turned into the demigorgon from Stranger Things with three deflated balloons for breasts (After Blue said monsterfucker rights!). After Blue’s take on sexuality is beyond queer. It’s queer as in it’s so weird that it makes the concept of same-species, same-sex relationships look positively boring. I love that!

I wish I’d had a chance to see After Blue in a theatre. The world created here is so strange and exciting that it would be ideal to see it in a dark room on a big screen. The plot meanders a bit. The film’s real strength is its creation and depiction of this absurd, beautiful world. It’s hard to know even what to say about the movie other than it’s weird as shit and I liked it. That’s kind of where I am with After Blue. It’s weird as shit and I liked it.

After Blue is guaranteed like no other WLW film you’ve ever seen. It’s strange from the first to last moment. It’s a fun, glittery stew of great influences such as Fantastic Planet, Zardoz, Mad Max and Guy Maddin. But director Bertrand Mandico also puts his own stamp on the film that makes it even more than the sum of its influences. This is a really singular film. It’s rare for WLW films to be genre films and rarer still for them to contain something you could define as an “adventure”. After Blue has all this and more. Like, so much more. I said it before and I’ll say it again; After Blue is weird as shit and I am 100% here for it.

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Other WLW films in similar genres