"...DV filmmaking icon Todd Verow's "Once & Future Queen," which stars Philly as a down-and-out rocker seeking fame and friendship. The film's episodic structure and dense sound design, as well as Verow's visual acumen, make this one of his strongest films to date."
- RES MAGAZINE

"You may leave this latest Todd Verow feature feeling vaguely unclean, but if you haven't been entertained, it won't be for the lack of effort of Verow and New York scene queen Philly. If you're not glued to your seat as Antimatter drinks, f**** and pill-pops here way across the Lower East Side, you'll be running for the door."
- LA WEEKLY

"Digital video's radical fringe"
- VARIETY

"Underground filmmaking at its best."
- REEL.COM

"...outstanding- a video-vérité punk fable."
- THE BOSTON PHOENIX

"Downright stunning"
- THE NEW YORK INDEPENDENT FILM MONITOR

"Funny & genuine"
- INDIEWIRE

"An entertainingly appalling, cheerfully nihilistic portrait...
comically bodacious actress Philly may remind viewers of the Divine
of the early John Waters films, but her performance here is tougher."
- THE TENNESSEAN

"Hilariously tragic"
-IFCrant

"...Once and Future Queen chooses to be
the absolute rock film, screaming its own anti-heroic hymn
for those who feel brave and ready to take a risk."
- OPENING NIGHTS 2000, GREECE

"...its shock and rock value are undeniable."
- THE MINNESOTA DAILY

"Whether she's draining the booze from an alcoholic friend's pad "to remove all temptation for you" or sullenly raiding the refrigerator of one of her three ex-husbands ("he's just pissed because I pulled a knife on him"), Anti-Matter is the pitch-perfect intersection of where narcissism crosses arrested ability."
- THE DALLAS OBSERVER

"...vivid and unpredictable... a fascinating bundle of contradictions."
- THE CHICAGO READER

"Should be required viewing in all of our nation's public schools."
- BRUCE BENDERSON, author

STARRING PHILLY as ANTIMATTER
WRITTEN & PRODUCED BY JIM DWYER, TODD VEROW & PHILLY
DIRECTED BY TODD VEROW

Purchase ONCE & FUTURE QUEEN at TLAvideo

Anti-Matter (Philly) is the queen of nothing, the ruler of nowhere, the monarch of cyphers- in other words, she's too cool for you- but can you put her up for the night? Drifting through the Lower East Side like the death rattle echoes of rock and roll, she's on a desperate, desolate mission to get her band together and finally conquer something, anything. Her manic manipulations and chaotic philosophies never seem to gel in the present- she's either a step behind or two steps ahead- but never where she really sees herself to be- wherever that is. Her therapist (Brenda Velez) can't help her and she just wants to get drunk with her AA buddy (Eric Sapp)

Old friends (Jennifer Blowdryer, Kid Congo Powers) don't want anything to do with her and new "friends" (Lee Whittier, Tia Sprocket) simply don't know what to do with her.

Bored with the dangling fly strip tease of fame that has eluded her throughout her whole life; she's nevertheless only alive on stage; dreaming of a place where no one will unplug that amp, threaten her life or shovel her out the door in the morning. Of course her rampant drug and alcohol use, her frequent homelessness, the fact that she isn't getting any younger and that she's been married more times than Liz Taylor doesn't help any. As her connections to reality slip away in the haze of her traveling sideshow lifestyle, the inferno of celebrity and self-destruction seductively beckon.

Todd Verow's ONCE AND FUTURE QUEEN is a woman destined to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and somehow making that into a fashion statement. If you've ever felt used and abused, under appreciated, scraped off the sidewalk or simply horny, Anti-Matter has some advice for you. She's been there, done that and didn't give a shit. Or so she says.

"George Eliot called St. Theresa of Avila, a young girl in the middle ages who was passionately determined to find glory in the holy wars, a "...foundress of nothing..." This might apply to the anti-heroine of "Once and Future Queen". Despite bad hair days, lurid fashion statements, and a throat of iron, aging punk rock singer Antimatter hasn't managed to attain the fame she thinks she deserves. But she'll live the life anyway as she grabs at every depraved entitlement of fame she can beg or steal from her friends while dreaming of a gig where nobody unplugs the amp. Anyway, who said fame is an achievement? Maybe its just a state of mind."
- New Haven FIlm Festival Catalogue Notes, 2001