Steam. Dir. Kyle Schickner. New Almaden, CA: Wolfe Video, 2009. DVD. 118 min. $19.95.

The lesbian content in this film is neatly cut into the story of one of three women who share a sauna steam room. The three main characters, played by Ruby Dee, Alley Sheedy, and Kate Siegel, are a widowed senior citizen, divorced 40-something mom, and an on-the-verge-of-coming-out-coed, respectively. Their stories follow a multi-character narrative arch, that plays out across their ages, sexualities, and racial differences.

Steam‘s major story-line is how romance comes into these three very different lives, and the lessons learned. The lesbian story is perhaps the most simplistic within a very simple film. This film will secure a solid place on the Queer Hallmark Network (when we get it). However, I can’t recommend it for any but the most inclusive, vast DVD collection. There are many more important, and deeper, fictional works that explore the complexity of queer lives. Steam could be a good Netflix rental, though, requiring only minor sofa-slug attention to achieve a feel-good buzz… and we deserve those kinds of films, too.

Reviewed by, Morgan Gwenwald
SUNY New Paltz