The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (Shock) (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	90:14 (Case: 94)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Maria Maggenti
Studio Distributor	Shock Entertainment	Starring	Laurel Holloman Nicole Ari Parker Dale Dickey Kate Stafford Sabrina Artel Toby Poser Maggie Moore Nelson Rodriguez Stephanie Berry
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Terry Dame

    The Incredibly True Adventure of 2 Girls in Love — clearly a title intended to run off the edge of any list of movies, even if it isn't the longest title ever for a movie (nope, I don't know what the longest one is — I suspect someone will tell us, though).

    This is a slightly unconventional romance, but it is a simple tale. Girl meets girl, girl finds girl interesting, girl falls in love with girl. There are a few complications, of course (there'd be no story without them). The two girls are quite different. One of the girls is white, one is black (this is only mentioned once, in passing, in the film — it looks like racial prejudice is over!). One is out, the other doesn't even realise she is interested in women, at first. One lives in a lesbian household with her aunt and her aunt's partner, the other lives with her mother. One works in a petrol station and is failing school; the other doesn't work, drives a Range Rover, and is doing well at school. Oh, and one is into Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, while the other listens to opera and classical music. About all they have in common is that they go to the same school.

    The story opens from the point of view of Randy (Laurel Holloman). Randy is not doing well at school. She is in her final year, but failing mathematics (and not doing too well in English or History, either). It doesn't help that she lives with her aunt (we find out later where her parents are), in a household that's chaotic. Her only friend at school is Frank (Nelson Rodriguez), who is rather camp, but a nice guy. Her best friend outside school is Regina (Dale Dickey), for whom she works at the petrol station.

    Evie (Nicole Parker, sometimes credited as Nicole Ari Parker — it's surprising that she's only five years younger here than in Dancing in September or Remember the Titans) meets Randy by accident. She's convinced there's something wrong with her car, and pulls into the petrol station to ask for advice. She's terrified that putting air into her tyre might make it blow up — not an auspicious impression to make.

    They meet again when Randy is thrown out of class and takes her anger out on the doors in the Ladies — Evie is already there, crying about her boyfriend troubles. Evie explains her problems. Randy makes a comment under her breath about making out with a married woman. They get caught smoking in there, and get detention together — that's a bonding experience...

    Randy puts a note in Evie's locker. Evie tries to write a reply, but can't get the words right. She gives Randy a copy of Leaves of Grass, a book of poetry by Walt Whitman. Randy reads it, and really gets into some of it. The two start spending time together. They are so different, but so interested in one another that they find common ground. Some of this is really quite sweet.

    In case you are wondering, yes, there is a little bit of nudity, but it's mostly kissing and hugging and caring.

    Like every romance you've ever seen committed to film, the course of love does not run smooth. But rarely does so much go wrong at once. You'll see.

Video

    The DVD is presented in an aspect ratio that's difficult to judge. There are narrow black bars above and below, but none visible to either side on a TV or projector. The top matte sags a bit in the middle, so the top edge is not a straight line. I displayed it on a PC, and discovered that it was matted to either side, as well (those narrow bars were concealed by overscan). The measured aspect ratio is 1.37:1 (the old Academy ratio!). It is not 16x9 enhanced. The original and intended aspect ratio is 1.85:1, at least according to the IMDb.

    This looks very much like a VHS master. It's soft and grainy, with reduced resolution — all the things we left VHS behind for DVD! To exacerbate matters, this looks to have been taken from a display print — you can see the inner edge of the reel change markings.

    The image is soft, but not to a level that makes it unwatchable. Shadow detail is somewhat limited, but it's tolerable. Film grain is frequently noticeable, although it may simply be reduced resolution. There's some light low-level noise.

    Colour is fairly well-rendered, although skin tones do get a bit orange on some scenes. There's nothing particular in the way of colour-related artefacts.

    There are plenty of film artefacts, mostly very small. There's an obvious white scratch or hair at 16:32, and a watermark at 65:15. There are a couple of spots where there are some vertically arrayed spots that look like they are on the verge of becoming a vertical scratch.

    There seems to be some excessive edge enhancement (hmm — is there such a thing as edge enhancement that's not excessive?)

    There is some light aliasing, which is a sad accomplishment given the softness of the transfer. There is no moire. There's some shimmer, like a subtle throbbing of the background, briefly. There are no MPEG artefacts. There's some dot crawl on the opening titles, and some aliasing on the closing credits.

    There are no subtitles.

    The disc is single-sided and single-layered. Given the limited content, the single layer is not over-stretched.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is a big choice of soundtracks on this disc. Yep, you can choose from one. It's English, Dolby Digital 2.0 192kbps, and I think it's really mono — that's in keeping with the theory that this was a VHS master. So is the reduced fidelity.

    The dialogue is mostly clear and easy enough to understand, although there are a few words that are less than completely clear. There are no obvious audio sync problems. The noise in the background of the dialogue suggests that most of it was captured on-set.

    The music is rather varied, including some opera, some classical piano, some rock, and some more conventional score credited to Terry Dame. It does the job.

    The surrounds and subwoofer are inactive with this soundtrack. To be honest, this dialogue-driven movie doesn't really need them.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are exactly no extras on this disc.

Menu

    The menu is static and silent, with just two entries: one to play the movie, one for chapter selection.

    This film is not yet available on DVD in any other region. It's out on VHS in many countries, though. Why do I feel this is just the VHS release in the shape of a DVD?

    An interesting film, finally on DVD, but not on a very good DVD.

    The video quality is not very good, looking like a VHS transfer of a used display print.

    The audio quality is adequate, but nothing special.

    The extras seem to be missing.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall