‘Girl’ a vivid look at US servicewomen

Award season hopefuls from US crowd Lido’s screens

ABy Andrew Barker

n unusual beauty pageant is the ostensible subject of Lysa Heslov’s debut documentary, “Served Like a Girl” — specifically, the Ms Veteran America competition for former US servicewomen. It’s an intriguing, nobly-intentioned event, but the pageant is ultimately an excuse to showcase a half-dozen quietly exceptional female veterans of the United States’ post-9/11 military operations, their stories variously hilarious and heartbreaking. Brassily shot, and assembled with no shortage of energy and humor, “Served Like a Girl” provides a close, emotionally vivid look at the often ignored female experience of the military.

Ms Veteran America is the brainchild of no-nonsense Army vet Jaspen Boothe, who became an activist after suffering an astounding pileup of hardships. Shortly before she was scheduled to be deployed to Iraq, the single mother lost all her possessions to Hurricane Katrina, and was subsequently diagnosed with cancer. After being discharged, she found herself homeless, with the local VA advising her to apply for welfare. The pageant is in some ways the public-facing side of Boothe’s Final Salute foundation, which raises money and awareness for homeless female veterans — according to the film, the country’s fastest-growing homeless population.

“Served Like a Girl” tracks contestants during the pageant’s fourth year in 2015, and they run the gamut from the endlessly empathetic Rachel Engler, a former NFL cheerleader who witnessed horrors as a medic in Afghanistan; to bubbly optimist Andrea Waterhouse, whose pair of ex-husbands appear to be happily raising the communal brood together; to a haunted Navy vet named Hope Garcia, barely holding things together as she crashes at friends’ homes and works as a ’40s-style pinup model. Nichole Alred, a sharp-tongued tomboy from Alabama, frequently threatens to steal the show completely as she banters with her mischievously clever mother. Meanwhile, the pageant’s first winner, Denyse Gordon, and a double-amputee former contestant, Marissa Strock, are on hand to offer support.

The actual intricacies of the pageant itself are sometimes a tad vague, but Heslov makes it clear that winning is hardly the competition’s real objective. The film is at its best when it simply allows the women to tell their stories, giving their perspectives a rare platform. We’ve seen innumerable depictions of servicemen on shore leave over the decades, but this may be the first film to delve into the finer points of sneaking a vibrator into a warzone. More than that, there’s something undeniably empowering about watching these women reclaim and celebrate the elements of femininity which military culture has traditionally forced recruits to tamp down. Alred in particular is living proof that there’s nothing contradictory about being a hardened, Harley-riding badass and also getting excited about trying on a frilly evening gown.

Strike

Particularly in the earlygoing, the film sometimes strains to strike the right balance between the lighter competition drama and the very serious hardships faced by women soldiers, but never does the latter feel shortchanged. Particularly wrenching is Garcia’s description of her rape while on duty, an experience she refers to as “MST” — or Military Sexual Trauma — which joins “IED” and “PTSD” on the long list of innocuous-sounding military acronyms for unspeakable horrors.

Even before it kicks off on Aug 30, the Venice Film Festival has bolstered its growing reputation as a launching pad for awards-season titles.

More so than in past editions, a deluge of English-language pics, including new works by Alexander Payne, George Clooney, Darren Aronofsky and Benicio Del Toro, will be worldpremiering on the Lido during the fest’s first few days, before segueing to Telluride and Toronto. This year there is a greater number of movies that all three events just had to have, which is causing scheduling headaches and added stress for talent and publicists, plus more costs, of course. But apparently it’s worth it.

“We all wanted those particular seven, eight or 10 titles, which made things a little bit more complicated”, says Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera. “I’m only happy if a film I’ve chosen also goes to Telluride or Toronto”.

The point being: after launching multiple Oscar winners four years in a row — “Gravity”, “Birdman”, “Spotlight”, “La La Land” — Venice has become tougher to ignore. And it has gained more leverage to ensure that the Lido is the first stop on the trifecta.

The real scheduling conflicts came with Telluride, with which Venice overlaps directly. The tightly curated festival in a Colorado mountain resort has also gained more Oscar heft lately, especially since launching “Moonlight” last year. But Barbera makes no bones about the fact that, as he sees it, there is no comparison when it comes to promotional punch.

“In Telluride you have 10 critics who write for the trades; in Venice you have 3,000 journalists from around the world. That is the difference”. “Venice seems to be a much better launch pad for anything critically driven”, agrees a veteran publicist.

But the Venice chief also denies that there is cutthroat competition with Telluride or that there is a war. “There is nothing of the sort”, he says. “There is a collaboration, as I believe there should be among festivals”.

Barbera also says he is “97% happy” with the Venice lineup and that they only missed out on “two or three” films they wanted. These include Richard Linklater’s upcoming New York Film Festival opener “Last Flag Flying”, and Christian Bale Western “Hostiles”, which is expected to debut at Telluride. (RTRS)