On the Friday before Pride Day (and just in time for Bushwick Pride this coming weekend), I had the enormous pleasure of seeing the New York premier of an indie comedy about lesbian prostitutes working the streets of NYC and the clitorises of some mild to severely deranged Republican housewives. It was called The Foxy Merkins and it is as hilarious as it sounds.
The Foxy Merkins premiered at Sundance this year and it is the second film by director Madeleine Olnek to feature longtime Bushwick resident Lisa Haas and stand-up comedian Jackie Monahan, both of whom helped write the screenplay. The previous film was the well-received Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, another comedy set in NYC.
In a Q&A after the screening, director Madeline Olnek said that the Foxy Merkins is a “loose remake” of the indie classic My Own Private Idaho, which is about two gay male prostitutes making their way in the Northwest. There are also definite borrowed scenes and themes from Midnight Cowboy.
