Bar Girls

Bar Girls was released by MGM’s “Avante Garde” line of films. Which I guess tells you where we were in society in 1995. There is nothing avante garde about Bar Girls. Yeah, it’s gay, but by 1995, there’s been dozens of other, much edgier gay movies. Instead of pushing boundaries, Bar Girls feels more like an attempt to assimilate or bring homosexuality to the mainstream. And that bores me.

Protagonist Loretta is the textbook definition of a yuppie. She works as a cartoonist and has a full social life and nice apartment. While frequenting her local lesbian bar, Loretta spies Rachel. While initially, Rachel rejects Loretta as she’s in a relationship, the two share chemistry. Eventually, Loretta and Rachel begin dating. But the small size of the lesbian community mean that both women’s exes are never far away. Loretta develops a strong jealousy towards Rachel’s ex. But after the two women begin spending time together, perhaps it is Rachel who should be insecure about her ex’s relationship with her current girlfriend.

Whether by design of the film’s writer or director or more likely, at the behest of various studio execs, Bar Girls plays it safe. This is the main issue with the movie. There’s no edge to Bar Girls at all. This is a film that takes the still taboo theme of homosexuality and tries to make it as palatable as possible for the mainstream. And it doesn’t even look like that worked. Bar Girls had a pretty mid box office and is not exactly a cult classic outside or even within the LGBT movie sphere.

Especially because it’s a comedy, the film being as toothless as it is becomes a problem. There’s lots of funny stuff about being a lesbian! But in order to access a lot of those jokes, you need to work with this community’s specific uniqueness and idiosyncrasies. Its queerness, if you will. In trying to mainstream lesbianism, there remains few jokes that hold specificity or truth to the lesbian experience. Loretta is a character who has many traits beyond being a lesbian. Good. But despite the film’s efforts, none of those traits are being funny. And this is at least partially because of how hamstrung this R-rated comedy is by the decision to make it for a general audience who are too distant to gay culture to engage with it on a deeper level.

Bar Girls charts a long span of Loretta and Rachel’s relationship. In this short movie with numerous subplots, that means the relationship development feels often rushed and like key moments are missing. I enjoyed the first half of the film a lot more, as the relationship developed over a more stable time period. The second half feels rushed as we race towards a potential break-up due to Rachel’s ex, who is studying to be a cop. Another element that feels like an appeal to the mainstream. Loretta starts out vehemently opposed to all cops because of their excessive use of force towards marginalized communities. But then she gets to know the cop, even becomes attracted to the cop. And her very valid initial points are largely erased by the love triangle that develops.

Initially, I thought maybe Bar Girls hit harder in 1995. Lots of it feels like a proto-Sex and the City. But ultimately, I think this gives the film too much benefit of the doubt. Queer cinema was already beyond what Bar Girls did. There were queer films that were edgy or funny or even better appeals to the mainstream by this point. By contrast, I don’t even think Bar Girls works as a good time capsule of the time. Too much of this film feels like a compromised vision and an attempt to be something it’s never going to succeed at. Bar Girls is a gay movie made for a straight audience. And financially, critically and in hindsight, it doesn’t seem to have succeeded in that field.

Overall rating: 4.6/10

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