‘Nothing else quite like it’: why DEBS is my feelgood movie | Movies

“Are you kidding me?” snaps Ms Petrie, Holland Taylor’s power-suit loving intelligence chief, in the direction of the tip of the 2004 spy satire DEBS. “We conduct a nationwide manhunt for you, and also you’re boning the suspect?!”In a nutshell, that is the fundamental premise of Angela Robinson’s 2004 debut characteristic movie, a critically panned field workplace flop which has reworked right into a cult basic over the past 20 years because of its refreshing and cheery nonchalance in the direction of the topic of sexuality. The closely sanitised trailer, which erased just about all proof of a sapphic storyline, meant that DEBS handed me by for years. Now, I’m making up for misplaced time.Although DEBS is much from being the primary movie to discover queerness by means of the lens of a prison caper – financial institution heist thriller Set It Off, gory noir flick Sure and David Lynch’s basic Mulholland Drive all beg to vary – Robinson’s tackle a longstanding trope stands out for its distinct lack of grit or peril. It’s also an outlier in contrast with different, extra lighthearted lesbian movies of the identical period. Whereas extra conventional romcoms corresponding to Think about Me and You and Saving Face additionally tried to shift the dial, the disgrace and interior turmoil of their closeted lead characters wrestling with forbidden wishes nonetheless supplied a lot of the narrative thrust. And whereas Jamie Babbit’s equally tongue-in-cheek However I’m a Cheerleader has the obvious similarities, that satire hinged on one thing a lot darker and extra sinister, parodying the very actual hurt attributable to homosexual conversion practices.DEBS, however, stays surprisingly notable to at the present time, for merely being a foolish, over-the-top, low-stakes noughties thriller that simply so occurs to have some lesbians in it.Launched the 12 months after Charlie’s Angels gaudy, willfully foolish sequel Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, DEBS put an excellent campier spin on the opposite high-octane thrillers that dominated in that period. The story centres on a gaggle of teenage spies who’ve been handpicked for a lifetime of paramilitary espionage on the power of their highschool SAT scores. Very similar to a pack of Fame Academy hopefuls, the gang dwell all collectively in a sorority-styled home and battle towards organised crime, all whereas sporting tiny plaid skirts that assist them to resemble extras from Britney Spears’s Child One Extra Time music video. Their commander-in-chief, Ms Petrie, turns up often as a hologram to ship categorized briefings in the midst of the college canteen. Dominique, performed by Devon Aoki, speaks in a farcical French accent, and completely has a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, and a brand new man in her mattress.Every little thing goes easily sufficient till a brand new sighting of DEBS’ terrifying arch-nemesis Lucy Diamond – a murderous supervillain with impeccable eyebrows and a thirst for bloodshed. Particulars on her origin story are amusingly skinny – a nasty breakup and an insatiable hatred for Australia are each alluded to – however one factor is even clearer than the ladies’ super-reflective lip gloss: she have to be stopped. And who higher to defeat her than DEBS’ resident goody-two sneakers, Amy Bradshaw – who’s writing a whole thesis delving into Lucy Diamond’s warped interior psyche.There’s only one downside – Amy isn’t simply concealing state secrets and techniques. She’s additionally mendacity to herself about who she actually is, although the tofu scramble she orders for breakfast is a brilliantly on-the-nose trace about the place issues are headed. As soon as Amy learns that Lucy is into girls after a failed stakeout of her horrible blind date with Russian murderer Ninotchka Kaprova, her fascination with the enemy solely builds. In the end, our hero and villain find yourself operating away collectively, faking Amy’s kidnap with a view to head off on an prolonged romantic romp.Whereas her pals clearly really feel betrayed at first – her fellow DEB Janet scathingly labels her a “homosexual slut” after uncovering the scheme – they in the end conspire towards the federal government to assist them flee and discover happiness. Amy’s journey of self-discovery could come about by means of extremely uncommon means, however her coming-out story is a largely joyful one, and her sexuality is barely a supply of plot stress.Although it’s definitely attainable to learn Amy’s propensity for mendacity as a deeper metaphor for hid queerness, doing so would most likely imply taking DEBS far too severely. Right here, issues are merely not that deep, and 20 years on from its launch, there’s nonetheless nothing else fairly prefer it.