And yep, that's what they do. When I first clicked a random link to their Star Trek video, I figured "The Girls on Film" would be just another easy YouTube-bound spoof-and-goof, or someone's film-school project with cute undergrads, or, if I were lucky, a Funny or Die pastiche I hadn't caught yet.
So I was pleasantly surprised to find that the result is more than just an exercise in pastiche, or in refracting gender through a clever prism (although it is both). As I watch actors Laura Miyata and Ashleigh Harrington recreate a scene from No Country for Old Men, and do so very well, the Coen Brothers' spare, every-word-counts dialogue rises to the surface, letting me listen and appreciate it with fresh ears.
In a scene from 2009's Star Trek, Harrington so adeptly replicates Chris Pine's subtle choices and tics, I see the character of young Kirk emerge despite the removal of the Y chromosome.
In all their videos so far, there's also something to admire in the fidelity director Jeff Hammond and his crew hold to the original camera shots, sets, and lighting within the limits of what I assume must be shoestring budgets.
And yeah, it's also just a fun Internet thing.
