Winner of audience awards at LA Outfest and the SXSW Film  Festival, By Hook or By Crook is one of the best independently financed bank-robbery flicks since Bottle Rocket, despite the complete absence of any actual bank robberies.  The film drops in on three wacky weeks in the life of Shy (Silas Howard), who, as the film opens, is living in Hoxie, Kansas – the epicenter of rural banality, especially when you're a butch lesbian.

Days away from losing her house to foreclosure, Shy becomes entranced by a bank robbery depicted on the evening news.  With dollar signs in her eyes, Shy heads for the big city (San Francisco, natch), but can't afford a gun to pull off any heists.  Eventually, Shy meets Valentine (Harriet Dodge), a fellow butch who has a pretty bad case of OCD, as well as some mommy abandonment issues and a girly sidekick (Stanya Kahn) who is only slightly less crazy than she is.  Gritty adventures follow, making Crook kind of like cross between a gay Thelma and Louise and a gayer Midnight Cowboy (Val is a dead ringer for Ratso Rizzo [or maybe Harmony Korine], while Shy shares the wide-eyed innocence of Joe Buck [or perhaps Conan O'Brien]).

Shot using handheld digital video, Crook does limp a bit toward its finale, but the lively soundtrack (featuring the likes of the Make Up, the Mono Men, Buffalo Daughter and Blonde Redhead) and the cameo by Joan Jett keep things from grinding to a halt.  It's extremely well-written, with a couple of very thoughtful, perfectly executed montages, though some might gripe about the portrayal of gender-benders as a mentally unstable lot.  But hey – anything is better than the watered-down drivel on Will & Grace every week, right?

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