Steam Starring Ruby Dee, Ally Sheedy, Kate Siegel

• Written and Directed by Kyle Schickner
• Wolfe Video
• 2009
• 118 Minutes
• English

Steam’s portrayal of real women and their lives in suburban New Jersey, through a bit clichéd, feels familiar and true. Ally Sheedy (Laurie) is a radiant 42, Kate Siegel (Elizabeth) is a cute 19 and Ruby Dee (Doris) is a glorious 70-something (though her real beauty is covered with far too much pancake makeup) and all three characters are plagued by isolation and low-self esteem.

Shown through a series of unfolding events in each woman’s life, Elizabeth, Laurie and Doris find love, experience distress, loss and grief only to discover their real selves.

The plotline involving Elizabeth, who throws off the tethers of her strict, religious upbringing to come out as lesbian with a far-too-aggressive (and very sexy, but unbelievably bitchy) bisexual college classmate, is pretty camp: A (church)mousey geek girl goes all-out queer politico, get’s arrested and comes out to her parents behind bars in the most obnoxious and rude manner.