Philadelphia QFest opens with 'Judas Kiss,' 'Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same'

How many times have you wished you could go back in time and give your younger self a swift kick in the rear over stupid decisions?

That's the premise of director J.T. Tepnapa's feature premiere, the time-travel melodrama Judas Kiss, one of two opening-night films for Philadelphia QFest. The festival will offer 109 films through July 18.

A mélange of A Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, and Dante's Cove - with a smidgen of Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Judas Kiss stars Charlie David  as Zachary, a washed-up 35-year-old filmmaker and freeloader who is asked to judge a film contest at his alma mater.

On his first night, Zachary is seduced by hot, brash student Danny (Richard Harmon of AMC's The Killing). It turns out Danny is one of the film contest's finalists.

Worse, he is Zachary's younger self. And his student film, a brutal, autobiographical depiction of an abusive father, is the same kind of short that made the young Zachary such a hot Hollywood commodity.

As one of his old professors tells him, it's Zachary's job to make sure Danny doesn't make his mistakes: The older man went for fame and fortune rather than developing his craft. Fifteen years later, he's a wedding videographer.

Judas Kiss boasts brilliant production values, clever use of locations, and excellent casting. David and Harmon are ably assisted by costars Timo Descamps, Julia Morizawa, and Sean Paul Lockhart (who is due to receive QFest's Rising Star Award on Friday).

Tepnapa's briskly-paced film has its magic-realist heart in the right place. But it falters when it tries to marry its sentimental, naive moral lesson with the soaked-in-irony, hipper-than-thou attitude of its aesthete characters.

Judas Kiss is paired with a "female" film Thursday night, Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, a delightfully kooky - if severely limited - off-the-wall romantic sci-fi spoof from Madeleine Olnek.

A clever homage to the special effects-challenged flying-saucer movies of the 1950s, this black-and-white feature opens on the planet Zots, which is on the brink of an environmental apocalypse.

See, the ozone layer has been severely depleted because of "big feelings." Love, as one Zots counselor explains in Olnek's trippy alien language, transcends the boundaries of the individual, thus rising up into the ozone layer. (Hatred is fine, since it destroys the person.)

So, big feelings are outlawed. Yet Zots has a humane way of dealing with big-feelings violators: They're sent to Earth, where they must find a mate, fall in love, and get dumped. "Then you can get your heart broken so that you cannot love anymore," the counselor says.

The film follows the fortunes of three female Zotsians, Zylar (Jackie Monahan), Zoinx (Susan Ziegler), and Barr (Cynthia Kaplan), who fly to Earth - in flying saucers that look suspiciously like baking pans encircled by Christmas lights.

Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same reaches some nice highs when it tells the sweet love story between Zoinx and earthling Jane (Lisa Haas). But the movie feels more like a joke, or a three-panel cartoon, than a full-length feature.

Directed by J.T. Tepnapa. With Charlie David, Richard Harmon, Sean Paul Lockhart. Distributed by Wolfe Releasing.

Running time: 1 hour, 34 mins.

Parent's guide: Not rated (nudity, sex, profanity, mature themes, smoking).

Playing at: Ritz East Theater 1 at 7:15 p.m. Thursday and noon Sunday.

Information: 267-765-9800 Ext. 4 or www.qfest.com.

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Directed by Madeleine Olnek. With Lisa Haas, Susan Ziegler, Jackie Monahan, Cynthia Kaplan.

Running time: 1 hour, 16 mins.

Parent's guide: Not rated (mature themes, sexual references, partial nudity).

Playing at: Ritz East Theater 2 at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, and Ritz at the Bourse at 5 p.m. Monday.

Information: 267-765-9800 Ext. 4 or www.qfest.com.

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