FILM: Butch Jamie – When Being Yourself Ends Up With You Being Quite the Opposite

Written, produced, directing and starring Michelle Ehlen, Butch Jamie is a film that takes the romantic comedy genre, flips it upside and inside to create something that is definitely going to put a smile on the face of any lesbian comedy fan.

Beginning seeing Jamie, played by Michelle Ehlen, as an out of work actress trying to get work (unsuccessfully) by adopting a femme role, the film then sees her come home to her roommate Lola (played by Olivia Nix) and Lola’s cat, Howard, who unlike her is doing incredibly well in the entertainment world featuring in advert after advert. Disheartened that even a cat is doing better than her, Jamie decides it’s time to take the advice of her best friend David (David Au) and stop trying to be someone she’s not and instead be who she is.

A butch lesbian.

The result? Jamie gets a role, but it’s not quite what she was after, landing not the female part she imagined but the male one instead. Leading Jamie to have to live one kind of life on set and another off may at first have seemed easy, but soon romance in the form of costume designer Jill (played by Tiffany Anne Carrin) starts to cause problems as male Jamie and her begin dating. Add to this an attraction that appears to be growing between Jamie and her roommate Lola, despite the fact Lola has a rather scary and intense German girlfriend, and Jamie is in for a whole heap of romantic trouble.

Light hearted with some funny lesbian jokes dotted through it, Butch Jamie acts to raise questions both about the way we perceive gender roles and how much male and female behaviour really do differ and will make you think more than your average rom com would. However don’t go expecting this to be the most thought provoking film you’ll ever see because this little hearted independent comedy film is far from that. In fact Butch Jamie is an independent film through and through. Simply made, and sometimes amateur feeling, this is a film that relies on the actors, and not special effects and locations, to sell the film and the good news is that it more manages that, showing just why Ehlen was awarded “Outstanding Actress” at Outfest 2007 in L.A.

Definitely worth checking out if you’re after some light lesbian based humor, Butch Jamie is available for £8.99 at Amazon.

You can check out the Butch Jamie trailer below: