BFI Flare Film Review: Egghead and Twinkie

School friends Matthew (Egghead) and Vivienne (Twinkie) have been best buddies since their early years. They’re so close that Twinkie’s mother thinks Egghead is her boyfriend.

But life’s complicated: first Twinkie, an adopted mixed Asian artist in-the-making is Gay, and an unwelcome kiss from Egghead on a cinema visit forces her to come out, making Egghead’s amorous intentions unrequited.

The outing continues with her parents- with an unfriendly response  from her separated father. In the meantime Twinkie is forging an online link with a female Texas DJ, whose Instagram handle is BD- standing for Butch Dyke.

BD invites Twinkie to a Lesbian dance night – Lez Dance, in Dallas, Texas, and so starts a road-trip across America, with Egghead as the somewhat reluctant driver.

Writer/director Sarah Kambe Holland creates a light-hearted comedy, with serious undertones. She mixes animation and memes with live action and flashbacks that add irony and undercutting to the narrative. It works really well.

Of course we kinda know all along that there will be twists and turns, ups and downs and maybe the journey to true love might be disappointing. And indeed it is – BD turns out to be a shallow disapppintment, but along the way Twinkie meets Asian bi-sex Jess, a bubble tea waitress.

Twinkie is a derogatory term meaning a person is yellow on the outside and white inside. Twinkie embraces this slur and makes it her own – as she finally does with her sexuality. And there’s a moral that meeting face to face beats online romance any day.

The three principals – Sabrina Jie-A-Fa as Twinkie, Louis Tomeo as Egghead and Asahi Hirano as Jess are all delightfully engaging and honest in their portrayals. I can see a sequel – Twinkie and Jess – on the cards maybe.

The film is showing as part of BFI Flare LGBTQ+ film festival and can be seen on the Southbank, London on 18 and 26 March. Check out the film title on search for further screenings.