Friday Movie Review: Violet Tendencies Starring Mindy Cohn

Okay, I have a secret that won’t be a secret anymore in a minute: I’ve seen every episode ever made of the 80′s TV series, The Facts of Life. Though I was not aware of my lesbian “tendencies” at the time, I was totally enamored of the Nancy McKeon character, Jo, and I  just wished she and Blair would see eye to eye for once. Fast forward nearly 20 years and I got my wish and more when I discovered Facts of Life femslash fan fiction where the brash Jo and Princess Blair are a lesbian couple.

The Blair character was played by born again Christian Lisa Whelchel. Whelchel, alas, has all but disappeared from both television and the very brief Christian music career that the show launched. It’s probably for the best as she has espoused some extreme child rearing methods in her books published in recent years.

The comedic foil to the Jo and Blair characters on the show was the bubbly, personable, intelligent and nosey Natalie Green played to the hilt by Mindy Cohn. Cohn has continued to act in supporting roles in television and Movies. She’s probably best known now for her voice over work as the animated character Velma in the Scooby-Doo series.

Lesser known than her Facts of Life work and her voice over work as Thelma, was her starring role as a stereotypical fag hag in the 2010 movie, Violet Tendencies. It’s too bad because it’s a role she shone in as the lead. Cohn plays the role of Violet, “Manhattan’s most popular fruit fly.”

The Synopsis:

She is the racy, fun-loving belle of the ball. She spends her nights as royalty, but when the party ends she always heads home alone. While her co-worker Riley (Sam Whitten) struggles with his baby-crazed boyfriend Markus (Caper Andreas), and her roommate Luke (Jesse Archer) tackles monogo-mania, Violet’s romantic life is one big bellyflop. Riley tells her to seek out a straight male version of herself – the mythical “Fag Stag”. But glamorous guru Salome (Kim Allen) gives her other advice; To nab a man, she insists, Violet must abandon her gay boys once and for all.

Opinions of this movie are of the extreme love it/hate it variety. Gay men, by and large love it. I loved it. Many straight people don’t seem to get it at all. Who really cares if they get it? If you’re gay, this is an hour and 40 minutes of great entertainment and there are all of the prerequisite special features like deleted scenes, commentary, behind the scenes interviews and more.