It goes without saying that I leave my personal life out of the great majority of my work as a film critic. I just don’t see how it’s important, not for how I write or for whom out there reads it. Sure I reveal bits and pieces in my reviews from time to time, but that’s because cinema – at its best and definitely at its worst – should hit some sort of nerve, should spark memories, and if I didn’t put that into my writing than I’d be doing both myself and my readers a humongous disservice.

Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives writer/director Israel Luna © La Luna Entertainment

But in the case of Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives I find it virtually impossible to disassociate who I am as a person (and the road I’ve traveled to get to this point in my life) from director Israel Luna’s (R U Invited?) energetic and hyperactively violent 1970’s-style exploitation throwback. Having generated a ton of controversy during its Tribeca Film Festival debut, a movie about a group of transgender women sexually humiliated and brutalized who ultimately take matters into their own hands seeking revenge was always going to be one that was going to pique my interest.

But how? Was I going to be offended and side with the leaders at GLAAD who condemned the picture basically sight unseen? Or would I, as a fan of exploitation classics like Freaks, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Repulsion, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song and I Spit on Your Grave, be open to all the zany ultra-violent craziness even though some of it potentially might hit a bit too close to home?

The answer lies far more towards the latter than it ever does the former, Luna’s picture a hyperkinetic cavalcade of high heels and lowlifes I enjoyed a lot more than I probably should have. At the same time the film is still a decided mixed bag, and while the surreal sight of transgender hotties taking out a group of homophobic Neanderthals does provide its fair share of thrills getting there did take some effort on my part. The middle portion depicting the attack is played with such a straight face and without the slightest bit of irony, and while I respect that Luna didn’t want to trivialize his heroines’ plight by going for the funny that doesn’t make watching this long, sometimes torturous sequence, even a tiny bit easier.

All of which leads me to a conversation I had with Luna and one of his stars Willam Belli (whose performance as the unbelievably racist yet incredibly caring Rachel Slurr is easily the film’s best) at Seattle’s W Hotel just a few hours after a SIFF midnight screening of the picture. I admit this was one of the few conversations I’ve ever had with a filmmaker where I absolutely didn’t know what to expect. Would the pair be willing to discuss my reservations towards the picture? Would they address the controversy? Or would they just want to gloss over it all and talk superficially about a picture that’s admittedly pretty superficial itself (it is an exploitation throwback, after all)?

“I remember Googling certain Blaxploitation titles and some of them had words like ‘monkey’ and other slurs in [them],” Luna admits while trying to explain where the ideas for his picture came from, “and I thought back then it was the sort of ‘all-in-the-family’ kind of thing where that was okay but that you couldn’t make those [films] now, because we’re way too politically correct. I thought, seeing that I’m going to have transgender women, and seeing how I’m going to just let them be themselves and because I was tired of trying to write for the mainstream I thought I would just write this script for me. I’m going to write it the way my transgender friends talk.”

“Which to me was perfect. Back [in the 1970’s] they didn’t care about the political correctness. They just did it. People we’re either going to hate it or they were going to love it and that was perfectly okay. That’s why I thought it fit the tone with having ‘Tranny’ in the title, having the girls – especially when they were adlibbing and with the girls saying stuff like when they jump in the car early on, ‘Girl, watch out, you’re dick’s going to fall out!’ – that it’s okay to say. It might offend somebody but it’s all done in fun. When [Rachel] responds to someone wondering why their ass is greasy by saying, ‘Because you’re Mexican, boo-boo,’ somebody could be offended by that, sure.”

“Somebody was,” interrupts Belli. “Kate Bornstein. And, I was like, really Kate? My character, Rachel, is written by a Mexican-American filmmaker, she is a bit of a racist, and I was like, why are you offended white lady? I’m sorry. My character is a racist, and she hates everyone equally, and I just thought it fit that era so well and that it would be perfect. Bigotry comes in many colors.”

While we laugh a little about this, part of me can’t help but wonder that what they are both saying is true that won’t make it any less difficult for some viewers to sit there and take these moments for the politically incorrect farce that they are. I’ve sat in bars with Drag Queens. I’ve heard what they’ve had to say about those around them, and even though those catty asides could be hilarious that didn’t make them any less demeaning or borderline racist.

“I feel like that with all the political correctness out there that it is a chosen few, that out of 100 people it is three who are choosing to say they’re offended and therefore everyone should be offended,” states Luna matter-of-factly. “But I think everyone is tired of the PC stuff. Honestly? I thought I was going to write [the script] and shoot this film and maybe one little festival somewhere will screen it and then it’s just going to die. That’s what I thought. And because of that the writing was just no-holds-barred; I was going to do just whatever I wanted.”

The answer makes me look again towards Belli. As a transgender actor she’s appeared in various guises (and genders) in projects as diverse as television’s “Boston Public,” “Nip/Tuck” and “Criminal Minds,” as well as in films like Because I Said So and Dog Tags. With that in mind, did it ever worry the actor that the script was going a bit too far? That even in trying to push the boundaries of political correctness the film’s dialogue and subject matter was going a little further out of bonds than she found comfortable?

“Not at all,” she answers without hesitation. “Here’s my thing. In Hollywood, I’m used to playing the cute tranny on TV even though I do a lot of boy rolls, too. But when I got [on set] and I saw how gorgeous my costars were I was like, fuck this, I’ve got to be funny. I was all out every opportunity that I could. I was the brick of the group – that’s what they called me lovingly, The Brick – but seriously because of that I just decided to go there and push boundaries and have fun with it. If this is a career killer? So be it. I just wanted to have fun.”

“But, in all honesty, I went whole hog on this because, why not? There’s so few times when a director will be unselfish enough that he will let people improv and do their own thing, especially when that director also wrote it. Auteurs or not known for that.”

It is here that things devolve for a little while as discussions on the proper way to pronounce ‘auteurs’ (it’s oh-turz, for those wondering) and the difference between antithesis and anti-thesis begins. “I didn’t go to college,” claims Belli with a perfectly straight face as Luna and I both try to contain our laughter. I did “Boston Public” and “Law & Order” and played students there instead.”

After the giggling dies down and composure begins to once more settle inside the room, our focus returns to the film itself. While watching it I was struck by what I saw as three distinct segments: the opening scenes with the five girls humorously dialoging amongst themselves, their subsequent deadly (and dead-serious) attack at the hands of oily rednecks and the survivors’ eventual (and highly surreal) recovery and then journey to exact their revenge. Was this always Luna’s plan? Did he see the same three-part structure as I did?

“Not necessarily,” he admits. “I see the three as up until the bashing scene, then the crazy hospital and Asian Gardens scenes, and then finally the revenge scene. The middle one is the one that is surreal. I knew I wanted to lighten it up in the middle after the bashing scene because I did know I wanted [that] scene to be disturbing because if it’s a revenge fantasy you have to see the bad to be able to cheer for the girls later. You needed that sense of being afraid and that sense of suspense so you know [what] the guys are capable of doing and that later in the film when the knife is missing and she’s in the kitchen [you’ve] already scene what they’ve done and what might come to pass. So I did want [the bashing] to be disturbing.”

“The middle part, it wasn’t until we started shooting that I knew what I really wanted. I knew I wanted it to be funny but then I remembered Chase [Wade], who did our hair, makeup and wardrobe and also played [Nurse Connie], she had this awesome sexy nurse outfit and I said, Chase, I so want you to wear this. It just went more and more surreal from there.”

“That was the only day I was worried,” chimes in Belli. “I was like, what movie is this? This is a totally different movie. The way he edited it with Kelexis [Davenport] and I being on the bed, I was like, what the fuck? There’s this hazy shot of [Chase] asking, ‘Did you drink your juice?’ and then grabbing [Kelexis’] titty I was wondering what was going to be the end product. I was like, I don’t need to go to the premier. This isn’t going to be good. But then when I saw it I was really happy with that scene in particular. When you see it, it just works great. I loved it.”

I did want to lighten up the mood at that point,” responds a smiling Luna trying to suppress his laughter. “The thing I kept in the back of my mind was Boys Don’t Cry. Fantastic film. It deserved all the awards that it got. I would never watch it a second time. Because it’s torture, then more torture, then they rape him and then they kill him and then it’s over. And I thought that wasn’t the only way to have a message. I thought, after the bashing scene, I want the audience to breathe. To laugh a little bit again. I wanted to lighten it up and then let it get serious again at the end.”

But that bashing sequence is tough to watch, it is played out like the film is Boys Don’t Cry or 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. It is treated with such epic seriousness part of me can’t help but feel the shift in tone is almost a disservice to both the characters Luna has created and to the community he is in some ways representing. The film enters into a hyper-surreal reality during its final third that doesn’t really fit what’s come before, and while I was admittedly cheering for our heroines to prevail there was still a large part of me that wasn’t comfortable doing it because of this.

Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives Trading Cards © La Luna Entertainment

“That’s the first time someone has asked this,” says Luna,” and I’ve been dying for someone to ask it. Getting back to the original reason I wrote [the script] is that it takes me back to the playground and being picked on by a bigger guy. I have this fantasy of wanting to beat them up but I don’t do it. So, the reality is, this is [sometimes] what happens. What’s our fantasy is to do all of this [back] to them. And that’s how it came out in the film. This is our fantasy.”

“I don’t know if I could do, or if I would want to do, a film that’s all throughout just really serious. I don’t think that’s me. I wanted to take the girls, in the end, to have fun with [their revenge]. I didn’t want it to be so serious. I wanted them to go a little over the top. I wanted them to have sexy outfits and everything. At that point, since it was the last days of shooting, getting to know their adlibs, I decided I wanted more of that, too. And that’s how it came out. But you are absolutely right. It is a different tone between the bashing and the revenge.”

“You know what’s weird?” adds Belli. “Three out of four screenings in Tribeca when there was the bat with the blood and hair on it people laughed and I was like, why would someone laugh there? Then here, in Seattle, there were like [groans] and squirming which is what I would have expected from all audiences. For some people, they must have thought that part was surreal, too. But, they were laughing at that? Really? I was a little surprised. But each person has a different take which I guess I do understand.”

I imagine those scenes of the bashing must have been tough on the actor, asking her about how she prepared for them. “A, it’s happened to me,” she states immediately. “B, I’ve been in jail. C, I’m an actor, it’s why I get cast. I’ve been beat up, pissed on and had sex all in one episode of ‘Nip/Tuck,’ you know, and they liked it enough they brought me back for four more episodes. I’m an okay actor. I can handle it. But if it was convincing, good; a lot of people have been there and it’s scary.”

Which does, in a way, lead directly to why there have been so many outspoken protests against the film by some groups. People in the LGBT community, the transgender community in particular of late, have been the subject of bashing and hate crimes for decades and the film picks up on that and then twists into a revenge scenario some just aren’t going to care for. Does it trivialize real events? Is Luna making light of current phenomena just to line his pockets while also making a name for himself?

“A lot of the [people] that are protesting are doing so because they haven’t seen the film,” answers the director. “And they refuse to. We’ve asked them to and they won’t. So, the first thing I would say is just give the film a chance, and if you hate it that’s great because I would listen to you more if you actually put in the effort to watch it.”

“Now, when they say I’m making fun of [transgender individuals] I want to tell them no and that they’re probably talking about the bashing scene and, that scene, there really isn’t anything funny about it the way I shot it. It’s funny before, what with the girls at the club and with their banter, but then when it gets serious I hope that it gets really serious. So I think they’re just taking it out of context, that they’re only watching the trailer and saying he’s making fun of hate crime. But they haven’t seen the whole film. All I can do is offer them to see it and then for them to make up their minds after doing that.”

“In my head, in the end, the film is a fantasy,” adds Belli. “It’s what in a perfect world [might] happen. It’s an eye for an eye, you know? Granted, it’s eye for an eye in amazing outfits, too. Krystal [Summers] boots were Prada, mine were Gucci; so amazing outfits and [retribution] against bashers, what more could a tranny want?”

After we finished laughing, discussed Belli’s horrible packing skills (she forgot everything from pantyhose to panties for her trip to Seattle), talked about needing to find a dress for the SIFF closing night party and had a short conversation about sports (the actor is a dodgeball aficionado while we both had past lives as High School football players) we finally turned things back towards the film itself, specifically other exploitation efforts that influenced Luna while making his picture. The obvious thing to bring up was 2007’s Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino effort Grindhouse, the director quickly squashing that particular influence down quite quickly.

“Someone from a younger generation might think that [I] was ripping off Grindhouse,” he says nonchalantly, “but no, that’s not the case at all. I went back to I Spit on Your Grave and specifically a Linda Blair movie called Savage Streets [from 1984]. Those were the two I was thinking about. Now, of course, seeing that Rodriguez and Tarantino had done [theirs] I was like, cool, so there still might be a market a film like this, I won’t be completely out of the blue making this movie. But it was mainly those other two movies from that era that I was channeling.”

“My character was actually inspired by Nichelle Nichols,” adds Belli. “She was in this Blaxploitation film [1974’s Truck Turner] where she was a madam and she ran a whole little brothel of women and she delivers this monologue that’s like, ‘Them bitches that left? Them two? Those two? They better learn to sell pussy in Iceland! We are family, and that’s how we gonna stay. So when I call you better shake your ass proper and make it look good!’ I mean, she says these mean things but she loves her friends, but she says these mean things because she’s stupid.”

“That’s where my character came from for me. I watched a lot of films once I signed on for this. I had about a week between when I signed on and the start of principal photography and went about two days before to work on makeup and costumes but before that I spent a lot of time watching [stuff] like the Nichelle Nichols movie.”

I’m struck a bit by how constrained that timeframe sounds. Signed on to the film a week before production? What’s that like for an actor? Is there added stress because of that?

“It’s great to know where your next paycheck is coming from,” laughs Belli. “So often you just don’t know and I work a lot, I’m one of the luckiest people I know, but every time a project finishes you’re always like, where is my next check coming from? We wrapped at 2:00 a.m. and I was like, in the car, back to Cali, at like 2:15. Drove straight through and got back to L.A. at 7:00 p.m. just wired on Pixy Stix and Diet Dr. Pepper. [In] New Mexico I had taken my makeup off with wipes in the car but I didn’t get my contour, and I was sweating, so there was like beads of brown dripping everywhere. It was not cute. But I was like, I have to get out of Texas and go get my next job. That’s the life of an actor. You need to know you’re going to get a next paycheck.”

Speaking of wrapping, it was unfortunately time for the three of us to call it a day. But I still couldn’t help but wonder what Luna’s hopes were for the film, what he wanted audiences to take away from it when all was said and done.

“I want for people to leave the film with the last words that are said,” answers the filmmaker. “[She] asks what’s the difference between us and them, asking the others if they know and they say they do not. ‘Me, either,’ she says. And that’s the point. They’re just like everyone else. I want [audiences] to forget that they’re transgender women, to know that they’re women, and for them to say that’s they’re no different than anybody else. There’s nothing strange about them. That’s what I want them to leave the theatre with.”

“The people that are protesting? I just want them to give [the film] a chance and know that this a step forward not back. This is getting exposure to a non LGBT audience and always to me exposure leads to education and even an exploitation film can educate.”

And what about Belli? What are her thoughts on all the hullabaloo? “I think the people who aren’t seeing the film aren’t seeing it because they’re too set in their [own mind frame],” she responds coolly. “They don’t see themselves as women. They don’t see themselves as what that truly and totally want to be. It’s like, why are you protesting this? Three out of the five of the leads are transsexual women just like you; they’re no less of a woman because they’re showgirls.”

“Most of the transsexual women that I know [like] Calpernia Adams, they’re still showgirls and they’re no less a woman. They took their first steps as Drag Queens, you know, so don’t frown on us for making this movie.”