a |
"B.U.S.T.E.D", from Johnny
Web
This is a movie that is
probably as strange as a trip to the moon for
most people, me included. Incredibly scruffy
apparently drug-crazed working class gangs in
England. The guys all have gold teeth, shaved
heads, pierced bodies, monstrous tats, and nearly
impenetrable accents. God only knows what their
racial mixture is. The background scoring is
techno pop, and the dancing scenes are almost as
violent as the violence. Is this real life? Beats
me, but it's pretty fascinating. It's not a great
movie but, I'll tell you what, it's damned good
considering it was made with a budget of about
thirteen cents and a bag of donuts to feed the
cast. The director has a very artistic way to
position all the actors in the scenes, as if he
had decided to copy the great Northern European
directors, or maybe tat's just his own artistic
vision. He has created a pastiche of styles,
actually. Some scenes are those shifty-eyed close
ups, ala Sergio Leone. It's fast moving,
eccentrically and unnecessarily violent,
unpleasantly in-your-face, and irritating. It
stars Goldie and David Bowie, so you can see that
it plays like a long, violent, confrontational
rock video. Is it any good? I don't recommend it,
but maybe this director will break through some
day. He has a lot of talent on display here,
although it is not yet mature or polished.
The woman is Rachel
Shelley. She's lovely, but I don't know much
about her. She is topless and her body looks
incredible in the third one, but it was so
friggin' dark! The other two came out fine,
especially for nighttime sex scenes a pretty good
distance from the camera. (#1, #2, #3)
"Carnal
Knowledge", from Johnny Web
You really have to
understand the macho angst of the pre-boomer
generation to catch on to what Jules pfeiffer is
going after in the script. By today's standards,
the Nicholson character is Neanderthal. Every
woman to him is a ball-buster who should stay
home and vacuum, and you watch this thing not
figuring out why any woman stayed with him longer
than the time it takes to sneak out of his
apartment in the morning. I suppose it is because
he wasn't all that odd by the standards of the
time. Some men were carefully nurtured with a
view of their own masculinity that was narrow and
unrealistic, and which treated women as mere
objects to be moved around their lives like chess
pieces, or to be admired in the ideal like the
little dancing girl on the top of the music box.
(Nicholson keeps saying that he would have been
happy with this woman or that woman if only her
breasts were two inches larger .... blah blah).
Frankly, although I'm not far from that
generation in age, I can't relate to one blessed
character in this film. Not one person behaves
like anyone I've ever known. For whatever reason,
although this film has been highly praised as
both a psychological drama and a black comedy, I
just plain don't get it. On the other hand, you
do have to love any movie in which Garfunkel has
a starring role. He isn't that bad an actor, but
the camera does not like this man, especially in
profile.
The camera likes
Ann-Margret enough for both of them, however, and
she had plenty fo breasts for any man.
(#1, #2, #3)
"Big
Bad Mama", from Tuna
I wish they still made
movies like this. Pure junk, everybody gets
naked. I'd stil go, wouldn't you? Joan Prather
was a TV second banana, ditto Susan Sennett,
Angie was a major celeb (although not a great
movie star) and one of the beautiful people.
Neither Sennett nor Prather was seen naked
elsewhere. Now imagine they made the movie today
with the equivalent cast: Liz Hurley in the Angie
role, Katie Holmes and JLH replacing Sennett and
Prather, and they were naked throughout, and the
plot was just some corny inoffensive fluff. Plus
some nudity from three other women, and male
nudity from a future TV star and a major
washed-up TV star - let's say Hasselhoff instead
of Shatner. Would you go? I'd plop down my seven
bucks, and maybe skip the edition that day.
Speaking of a full work day, Tuna did 108
collages, which must be some kind of record for
one film.
Angie Dickinson (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #23, #24, #25, #26, #27, #28) Sally Kirkland (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22) Susan Sennett (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19) Robbie Lee (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18) Joan Prather (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11) Shannon Christie (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10)
|
a |