Connie and Carla

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Connie and Carla's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Connie and Carla completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 4 August 2004.

Overall comments and recommendations

Connie and Carla is a comedy about two friends who dress up as men pretending to be women in order to escape a crime scene where they are witnesses to a murder. The theme of the movie centres on Robert, a drag queen who has been rejected by his family and who desperately wants them to accept him for who he is.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Connie and Carla contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Long term friends Connie and Carla are trying to make it in the night club scene as singers, but without much success. Boyfriends Al and Mikey are unsupportive, which doesn’t help their relationships, particularly Connie and Al’s. When a drug deal goes wrong, a bag of cocaine gets dropped into Connie’s bag. Connie and Carla leave the club that night and witness Al’s boss Rudi shoot Frank, their boss, for losing his money. The girls are spotted and immediately become targets for Rudi and his gang. Connie and Carla flee for their lives and drive off to find a new life, unaware they also have a kilo of cocaine. They land up in Los Angeles where they set out to find work.

After an unsuccessful stint in a beauty parlour, they try their luck at singing again. This time however they find themselves in a gay bar and when they’re told to come back for an audition, they dress in drag to help their disguise. Connie and Carla are a huge success as drag queens being very popular with the gay set. They befriend a group of four men who share their apartment block and who eventually become part of the act. One of these men, Robert, has a brother Jeff, whom Connie really likes. However the relationship seems doomed as Jeff is straight and Connie can’t break her cover and reveal she is really a woman. Jeff is also coming to terms with the fact that his brother Robert is a transvestite. Meanwhile Rudi is intent on getting his cocaine back and sends his men out across the country to find Connie and Carla. Things get very interesting when Rudi’s men finally trace the girls to LA and expose them for who they really are.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a little violence in this movie, none of it graphic:

• A man grabs Connie and Carla by their necks and pushes their heads onto the bar
• Rudi’s men beat up Frank and shoot him (not actually shown)
• Connie and Carla are shot at while trying to escape
• Connie and Carla have a bit of a physical fight
• Rudi’s men grab Connie and Carla by the throat
• Al throws a fire extinguisher at Rudi
• A fight breaks out on stage and Rudi tries to shoot Connie
• Connie and Carla knock one of the men out

Material that may scare children

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

There is nothing particularly scary in this movie however children in any age group could be confused or disturbed by the men dressing up as women.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie:

• Connie’s mother asks Connie and Carla if they’re prostitutes
• Robert believes his family all hate him for being gay and hasn’t seen them for months
• One of the men check out Connie’s breasts to see what she uses, then a few of the men have a poke.
• Jeff finds a tampon in Connie’s bag when she accidentally drops it.
• Connie and Carla expose their breasts to the audience to reveal that they are in fact women—this is shown from a back view.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity but much cross dressing with fish net stockings and suspenders, etc.

Two men kiss.

Use of substances

There is drinking in the pubs.

The cocaine which is planted in Connie’s bag and which Rudi’s trying to retrieve is a central part of the plot.

Coarse language

There is little coarse language—one use of the word bastard.

The movie's message

The take home message of this movie is one of tolerance and acceptance of people for who they are.