Butch Jamie

Butch Jamie has the same level of gender exploration and deconstruction as the average Judith Butler book. Luckily, Butch Jamie is much, much easier to digest.

As an actess, Jamie struggles to get roles. Part of her struggle is that frequently, casting aren’t looking for butch women. And Jamie’s attempts to present feminine aren’t exactly convincing. On the other hand, a shady production has an offer for her. They ask Jamie to not only play a male character in their movie but to keep up the ruse off-screen. Jamie accepts the offer. But on set, she begins a tentative relationship with Jill, a straight woman who doesn’t know Jamie’s actually a woman. At home, Jamie’s bisexual roommate Lola challenges Jamie’s often simplistic and black and white opinions on labels and personal identity.

Butch Jamie is at its best when its exploring issues of identity. This is a largely forward-thinking film. The film destabilizes gender and sexuality all the way back in 2008. Jamie’s gender expression is non-standard. And the film is great at showing this. Jamie definitely identifies as a woman, just a butch one. But the scene of her trying to be femme for a role clearly shows her discomfort and reads almost like she’s in drag. The same is true when she presents as male. The butch identity is a destabilization of gender expression, though a stable identity for its protagonist. Director/writer/star Michelle Ehlen is smart because while Jamie is often the focus of this identity exploration, she doesn’t remotely know it all. Jamie learns along with the audience.

Despite her own gender presentation being something of an in-between, Jamie struggles with the concept of bisexuality. But luckily, Lola is there to challenge and education Jamie. It doesn’t even have to be that deep. Lola is bisexual, that’s different than gay or straight. Get with it, Jamie. Lola also presents some rational responses to the lesbian top/bottom discourse. Fluidity and flexibility is good, actually! And trying to fit everything into nice, labelled boxes doesn’t always work. It’s nice to see that Jamie’s receptive to these ideas too. This means the character does grow throughout the film. Regrettably, one area the film lags behind in is discussions of trans people. There’s some slurs bandied about pretty casually when the discussion of dating trans people comes up. 2008, am I right?

Where Butch Jamie falls down is in the actual plot. Much of Butch Jamie is, as the film itself puts it: “a reverse Tootsie.” Lots of screen time is devoted to the inherently comedy of Jamie playing a man and of the mistaken identity this causes, especially in regards to potential love interest, Jill. And many of the jokes and plots related to this are pretty stale. They’re all things I’ve seen. Plus, Jamie brings up that she thinks it’s unethical to kiss a fellow actress as the actress doesn’t know she’s a woman. But Jamie then enters a whole-ass relationship with Jill and ignores that same question of ethics. It’s hard to ignore that this is a pretty serious lie to tell a romantic partner. Especially when the movie itself brings that up.

What Butch Jamie shows more than anything is how smart writer/director/star Michelle Ehlen is. This is a very cheap indie film with a very strong purpose and point of view. And there’s comedy too. As a writer, Ehlen found a story she specifically could tell and did it with depth. As an actor, she shows a knack for comedic timing. And as a director, her instincts are really good. And all of this shines through the film’s limited budget. There are moments of real greatness here. But the overall plot of Butch Jamie is a bit too standard. And regrettably, its budget is small enough that it does affect my enjoyment. Still, this was a really interesting watch. Ehlen has a strong point of view as an artist and performer and I’ll definitely be watching her sequels to Butch Jamie.

Overall rating: 5.2/10

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