BY HOOK OR BY CROOK is a highly original, mesmerizing first feature which takes bold creative and cultural risks at each turn. Emotionally riveting and ultimately transformative, BY HOOK OR BY CROOK is a buddy film that chronicles three weeks in the life of a handsome, gender-bending, small-town dishwasher with a nagging messiah-complex. Psychologically defeated since the death of her father, SHY heads to the big city to sink herself into a "life of crime". She is quickly distracted by VALENTINE, a deliriously expressive, wise-acre adoptee on a misguided search for her birthmother. The two freaky grifters join forces and learn the true meaning of "poise under pressure" in this visually stunning and superbly acted, anti-authoritarian tale of friendship, trust and redemption.

A true tragic-comedy, BY HOOK OR BY CROOK has been called a female version of MIDNIGHT COWBOY — poignant and brave, bringing grace, pathos and humor to its socially insightful subjects. BY HOOK or BY CROOK gives voice to a powerful new creative sensibility and is also the first of its kind: a narrative fiction that picks up where BOYS DON'T CRY left off.

Written and directed with gritty, visceral elegance and jaunty precision by HARRY DODGE and SILAS HOWARD, BY HOOK OR BY CROOK’s inspired visual style combines edgy instincts with lush conceptual detail. The film is as rowdy as it is tender in its groundbreaking gender exploration and treatment of human fallibility, resilience and dignity. Sketches of mental illness and money troubles are made fresh with the rough and touching combination of rusty hot-rod glamour and unselfconscious vulnerability. Shot at over 64 locations by indie vet D. P. ANN T. ROSETTI (GO FISH)—BY HOOK OR BY CROOK is a raw and lucid piece of storytelling with fearless moments of magic realism.

Exploiting the full potential of digital video, the film’s vibrating colors and luminous presence sustain a photographic vision, relaying imagery from an American gothic landscape without dipping toward sentimentality or the voyeur’s wink. The main characters, SHY and VALENTINE, live in and around this world with the intimacy of insiders, as well as the wariness of those who have been relegated to the outside. These characters are thus hauntingly familiar and completely original. With acutely unique stories and styles, this film deftly circumvents stereotype and posturing and rises to the task of portraying gorgeous human intricacy, with the incisive, self-reflective wit and generosity of a great novel. The premiere feature from STEAKHAUS and NGB Productions, the film also introduces acclaimed writer/performer STANYA KAHN, who brings original dialogue and a powerful performance as BILLIE.

True grit and the sexiness of a naked landscape: BY HOOK OR BY CROOK is utterly post-post-modern, a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll. -- © 2001 Steakhaus Productions