Sexy Sassy Smart: Charlotte Sometimes
By Win-sie Tow, Special Contributor

Is afterglow shower-proof? If she loves you more than you love her, is it fair to stay? Can a woman enjoy sex with a man she despises? These are only some of the questions that writer/director Eric Byler poses in his critically acclaimed feature debut, Charlotte Sometimes (now available on DVD). A deliberately paced film about lies cloaked as truths and impenetrable facades, Sometimes focuses on the unfulfilled desires of four Asian Americans as they simultaneously love and hurt each other.

Michael (Michael Idemoto) secretly longs for Lori (Eugenia Yuan), but tells her, “I’m not afraid to be alone.” Every night, Lori enjoys noisy sex with her boyfriend, Justin (Matt Westmore), but calls him a “user”. Justin is distant and clueless, but claims to “love” Lori. Darcy (Jacqueline Kim) is a roving writer who catches Michael’s attention, but warns him, “Men don’t really want to be with me— they just think they do.” Subtle lines, furtive glances, and visual innuendos make Charlotte Sometimes an intricate emotional roller coaster that requires multiple viewings to understand each characters’ complexities and insecurities. Although flawed in various ways, they all seek the same goal— a higher form of love that seems beyond their grasp.

Completed over the span of six years on a nil budget of $20,000, the film deftly uses shadows and distinctive camera angles to correspond with the characters’ buried secrets and inner deception. Often, key action takes place when shadows swallow their faces. When sexual energy rises between Michael and Darcy, their silhouettes are backlit by a soft green glow from outside. We can only imagine their expressions and wonder if they will let their guards down. Many scene transitions are filmed from the outside looking in. Rarely does cinematographer, Robert Humphreys, employ the conventional shot/reverse shot technique to place the audience in a character’s perspective. Instead, we are voyeurs peering through windows, watching from across the street, and eavesdropping through walls. High angles make the characters appear small, as though they are too wrapped up in their trivial relationship games to establish any meaningful connections with each other.

Charlotte Sometimes is a sexy, raw, and mature film that tells it like it is, not how it ought to be. Byler respects his audience enough not to spell out every nuance and plot twist. Well-acted by an accomplished Asian American cast, Sometimes depicts three-dimensional people, not caricatures created by Hollywood. Films, such as Charlotte Sometimes and Better Luck Tomorrow, propel independent cinema in the right direction— to tell good stories, regardless of race. Dubbed by Byler as an “anti-romance”, Sometimes offers no tidy solutions for its characters. We leave Michael, Lori, Justin, and Darcy as we found them— caught in their self-made web of deceit and vulnerability. Likewise, we depart with more questions than answers about ourselves.