"By hook or by crook" is a buddy film that chronicles three weeks in the life of a handsome, gender-bending, small-town butch with a nagging messiah-complex.

Emotionally defeated since the death of her father, Shy (Silas Howard) heads to the big city to sink herself into a "life of crime". She is quickly distracted by Valentine (Harry Dodge), a deliriously expressive, wise-acre adoptee on a misguided search for her birthmother.

The two freaky grifters join forces and learn the true meaning of "poise under pressure" in this visually stunning and wonderfully acted, anti-authoritarian tale of friendship, trust and redemption.

A true tragic-comedy, "By hook or by crook" is like a female version of "Midnight cowboy" hilarious, poignant and brave, bringing grace and humor to its socially insightful subjects.

It is also the first of its kind: It’s a movie about butches by butches and gives voice to a powerful new creative sensibility. Shot at over 64 locations by indie vet D.P. Ann T. Rossetti (Go fish) and directed with lush detail by first-time directors (the artist/rockstar duo Dodge and Howard).

"By hook or by crook" opens a carnival peephole into a world almost never before captured in a narrative film: the lives of real, working class butches (and the ladies who love them).

A lucid piece of cinema verité with fearless moments of magic realism, this film is as rowdy as it is tender in its groundbreaking gender exploration and treatment of human fallibility, resilience and dignity.

Sketches of mental illness and money troubles are made fresh with the rough and touching combination of rusty hot-rod glamour and unselfconscious vulnerability.

Exploiting the full potential of digital video, the film’s vibrating colors and luminous presence sustain a photographic vision, relaying imagery from an American gothic landscape without dipping toward sentimentality or the voyeur’s wink.

The main characters, Shy and Valentine, live in and around this world with the intimacy of insiders, as well as the wariness of those who have been relegated to the outside.

These characters are thus hauntingly familiar and completely original. With acutely unique stories and styles, this film deftly circumvents stereotype and posturing and rises to the task of portraying gorgeous human intricacy, with the incisive, self-reflective wit and generosity of a great novel.

The premiere feature from 'Steakhaus' and NGB Productions, the film also introduces acclaimed writer/performer Stanya Kahn, who brings original dialogue and a powerful performance as Billie. True grit and the sexiness of a naked landscape: "By hook or by crook" is utterly post-post-modern, a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll.

This is a movie about a budding friendship between two people. The fact that they happen to be queer is purposefully off the point. If you call them something, other than sad, rambling, spirited, gentle, sharp or funny, you might call them ‘butches‘. There's no better word for it.

In the old days they were called bulldaggers, daggers, tomboys. Those words are also excellent. We see butch as a third gender, not exactly female and not exactly male.

In the film, By Hook or By Crook, the press materials and interviews, the characters are referred to and refer to themselves using the pronoun 'he'.

So do their girlfriends, and unwitting strangers. The cops, the nurses, the rest of the world refer to them as 'she'. Such as it is. The intention is that the film's depiction of gender fluidity or gender non-conformity plays with the viewer by manipulating male/female stereotypes for fresh non-stereotyped results.

I havent seen this movie yet. My personal opinion will be online as soon as I have seen it personally.

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