First off, the name.
How can you go wrong with a name like “Song of the Lesbian Pirates”? That title holds so much promise and possibility. Will it be a musical? Will it be a sexually exploitative romp on the high seas? How can a measly 25 minutes do justice to such a premise?
Well, as it turns out the title is actually in reference to an opera that our two heroes hope to put on the stage. The opera, not the film, is full to the brim with sword fights and lesbian shower scenes. Fortunately that doesn’t mean that there is nothing worth watching in the film itself.
“Song of the Lesbian Pirates” is a cleverly written comedy full of fast, witty dialogue and humorous musical numbers. The film is broken into three acts, each introduced by a sharply dressed man with a questionable British accent who acts as the chorus. The first act sees the playwrights, Gullickson and Wilbur, fine tuning the script for their play, the second revolves around them pitching the idea to a producer, and the final act shows the aftermath of that meeting.
Gullickson and Wilbur, as played by Kyle Hudson and Justice Leak respectively, really carry this short. Their relationship consists of a lot of unexpressed attraction and this latent homosexuality makes their choice to make a lesbian pirate opera all the more interesting. The actors handle the fast paced dialogue admirably and have a well-developed sense of comic timing.
One of the few shortcomings of the short is the animation used to tell the story of the play. Used sparingly, this simplistic animation is effective but it is often crude enough as to be distracting. This is all too apparent in an extended segment of the film during the pitch where the animation is solely relied upon to explain the plot of the lesbian pirate opera.
However, this is a very enjoyable little short and a great start for director Ben Snyder and writer Gabe Morris.
Now if they could just film the actual lesbian pirate story, because we need more lesbian pirates. Seriously.
