Guys can ball all the girls they want. But what about the other way around?
Edge’s latest opens up that question with a bright, new comedy by who else? A woman.
The comedy centers on sex and the single girl in our age of AIDS anxiety. It’s Diana Amsterdam’s fun, fast and furious “Fast Girls!” A real eye-opener for those of us who study man-woman relationships.
Lucy (Katie Woodzick) edits for Viking Press, makes money enough to do what she wants and parties like there’s no tomorrow. She’s a thirty-something professional, coming off a bad relationship, having the time of her life and savoring every second. Who could possibly fault her for liking herself and doing things her way?
You guessed it: those closest to her.
Lucy’s best friend, Abigail (Kayti Barnett), has no love life except the one she listens to through the walls that separate her apartment from Lucy’s. Repressed? You bet. Jealous? Of course. Concerned for girlfriend? That, too.
So what do best friends do?
They vent, meddle, poke their noses in.
The dating scene according to Abigail is populated with serial killers, infected with STDs, infested with drugs and la-di-dah. You’ve heard it all.
Does an independent-minded, self-assertive, career woman listen? Silly question.
Same kind of thing with Lucy’s mom, Mitzi (Melanie Calderwood), only with a little something extra thrown in.
Her daughter’s sleeping around is killing mom an inch at a time. A Jewish mother’s guilt trip like the one Mitzi lays on Lucy, you don’t wanna know. The good it does? You don’t wanna know.
But when Abigail and Mitzi gang up on Lucy with “no guy marries a tramp,” aha, that you do wanna know.
Ever get sick and tired of people telling you you’re wrong? Ever get mad? So mad you make up your mind to show them they’re wrong?
Lucy does with a vengeance.
Lucy bets Abby and mom she can screw her ex-boyfriend into proposing marriage in one date. It’s a cinch, no problem; guys’ll do anything, say anything for a good time.
Anyway, the bet is on. Suspense builds. Attitudes activate.
The marvel is that Woodzick stays feminine, female and fascinating as an assertive, self-assured, professional woman. You’d think she’d lapse some here and there. Not so. Who says women’s freedom’s not a good thing? Not I.
Barnett deepens the role of girl as girl’s best friend. Usually, they’re snoops, a pain in the neck and dull. Barnett’s Abigail is complete, a little more domestic than Woodzick and makes for a fully developed, interesting character in her own right.
Rich Wright wins you over as a pretty fair profile of Lucy’s ex-boyfriend, Sydney Epstein. As the guy who gets caught in the wiles of the woman he loves, he makes you suffer with him and laugh at him. It’s a hopeless, helpless situation every guy who falls for a gal can’t help but commiserate in.
Gabriel Corey as Lucy’s 20-something plaything, Joe, also has his moment to shine. Watching a young stud’s hormones rage while Lucy coaxes him into asking for sex, well, it’s a hoot you don’t want to miss.
“Fast Girls!” offers no penetrating insights, no ground-shaking commentary. It’s theater for fun. I had a good time.
Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at grayghost7@comcast.net.
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