Lost and Delirious is a queer coming of age film based on The Wives of Bath by Canadian author Susan Swan. Despite its melodramatic use of Shakespeare and its fatal ending, the film remains one of Pool’s most touching stories. It also features incredible performances by a handful of talented actresses on the verge of stardom - Mad Men’s Jessica Paré (known to cinephiles for her break-out role in Denys Arcand’s Stardom (2000, 98 minutes), Mischa Barton of long-running American TV series The O.C. and Coyote Ugly’s Piper Perabo. Told from the naïve perspective of Mouse (Barton), a shy girl who arrives to an all-girl boarding school after her mother dies, the film is a classic 1990s lesbian tale that deals with three teenage girls who learn about love and lust amidst the rigid and repressive social microcosm they are trapped in.. 

When she arrives to boarding school, Mouse quickly befriends tomboyish Paulie and  upper-class Victoria. She is assigned to their dorm room and while they are both a year older, the girls all become fast friends. However, after witnessing an intimate moment between her two roommates, Mouse’s world is turned upside down when  rumors that Paulie and Victoria are a couple start to circulate around school. The beautiful friendship they had is rattled, at once by Victoria’s fear to be labelled a lesbian and by the constant bullying of their schoolmates, and Mouse finds herself in the middle of the two lovers. 

Pool’s visually luscious 7^th features film won countless awards world-wide and was nominated for 3 Genie Awards in 2001. The original score of the film was composed Yves Chamberland, known for his collaboration with the very queer dance troop La La La Human Steps. When last we checked, this steamy and timeless tale of adolescent passion was streamable on Google Play (among other platforms).