 |
LICK:
the Movie Critic
MOVIE REVIEWS by Jed Ryan
"THE
FLUFFER"
Now playing at the Quad Cinema, 31 W. 13th Street, NYC
Call for showtimes, (212) 255-8800 or 777-FILM
Check out the very cool website, www.fluffer.com
It was
a great pleasure for me to meet Wash West and Richard Glatzer,
the directors of "The Fluffer," at the Gay Life
Expo at Manhattan's Jacob Javits Convention Center last November.
Prior to "The Fluffer," West was an award-winning
director of many well-received hard-core gay adult films,
including "Animus," "Naked Highway," and
"Dr. Jerkoff & Mr. Hard." West is a tall, lanky
red-haired guy with a British accent, wicked smile, and "naughty
boy" eyes. His dark-haired, handsome "partner in
crime," Richard Glatzer, is the more reserved of the
two. Glatzer was director of the 1994 gay independent comedy
"Grief" (which starred Alexis Arquette, Craig Chester,
and Jackie Beat). Both men were incredibly friendly and funny,
posing for pictures and autographing copies of "The Fluffer"
posters for Expo attendees.
Wash
West didn't deviate too far from familiar gay adult video
territory with "The Fluffer."The film, which premiered
at the L.I. Gay
and Lesbian Film Festival last November and went on to
a triumphant reception at Manhattan's Quad Cinema, is a cautionary
tale about a young man and his unrequeited infatuation with
a porn star. Sean (Michael Cunio), a young, wide-eyed aspiring
cameraman, quite accidentally rents a skin flick starring
porn stud "Johnny Rebel" (Scott Gurney). Sean takes
a job as a camera man at the studio where Johnny Rebel works,
and (to his initial delight) he's soon "promoted"
to the job of "fluffer." (For those of you unfamiliar
with X-rated movie terminology, a "fluffer" is a
member of the porn set responsible for helping the male stars
keep their "equipment" ready for action.) Sean's
fascination soon turns into obsession, as he sacrafices his
own happiness and well-being for Mr. Rebel, who not only has
many serious issues of his own, but is also unflinchingly(?)
straight as well.
Unlike
porn parodies (like 1997's mega-stupid "Orgazmo")
,"The Fluffer" has some keen observations about
the adult industry, as well as moments of clever comedy, the
best scene of the movie being when Sean visits the strip club
where Julie, Johnny Rebel's girlfriend, dances. In what seems
to be an ill-conceived attempt to sublimate some of Johnny's
sexual aura using Julie as a "medium," Sean pays
for a lap dance and asks Julie to talk dirty about what she
likes her man to do to her. Julie gets into it... but after
the act, she looks Sean straight in the eye and says something
to the effect of "So... what kind of men do YOU
like?"
Unfortunately,
it's with great irony that in a film about gay male porn,
the two male leads are nearly eclipsed by the supporing female
stars. West and Glatzer are only able to coax wobbly performances
from cute Cunio and hard-body Gurney. Intentionally or not,
we never understand why Johnny Rebel, the porn star, is the
way he is. Granted, his character is SUPPOSED to be
shallow and dim, but more insight would have helped. Similarly,
the audience is left unsatisfied as to why Sean, the obsessed
fan, feels the need to pursue his thoroughly undeserving target
of lust. Via flashbacks, there's a hint that Sean's masochistic
traits may be due to having been taken advantage of by an
older "straight" man as a child. But for us to understand
the dynamics between Sean and Johnny, we need to believe it
completely... and intentionally or not, we're left to draw
our own conclusions. In contrast, Roxanne Day turns in an
illuminating performance as Julie, Mr. Rebel's long-suffering
stripper girlfriend. We really feel her pain, and Day steals
every scene she's in. There's also a brief but welcome cameo
by rock icon Debby Harry as the manager of the strip club.
Adina Porter is great as Silver, the sassy lesbian secretary
of the porn video company who inexplicably digs gay male porn.
The lovely and perpetually underused Guinevere Turner ("Go
Fish," "The
Watermelon Woman") is unfortunately wasted in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it
cameo as a video store clerk.
"The
Fluffer" is quite an experience. Catch it at the Quad
Cinema, where it's still playing.
Also
see Gay and Lesbian
Film Festival - Part 1 for more on The Fluffer.
 "TREMBLING
BEFORE G-D"
www.TremblingBeforeG-d.com
Call 777-FILM for theaters and showtimes.
Tackling
a difficult subject which was long overdue for exploration,
"Trembling Before G-d" takes a look at the difficult
issue of balancing devotion to your religion, and being an
out-and-proud gay man or lesbian. Originally scheduled for
a limited engagement, "Trembling Before G-d" was
held over and now is in its third month of release, having
played in Malverne, Huntington's Cinema Arts Centre, and various
theaters in Manhattan and Queens. The film takes a look at
the lives of several gay and lesbian Orthodox and Hasidic
Jews (For those unfamiliar with these groups, Orthodox and
Hasidic Jews are two of the strictest, most traditional divisions
within Judaism, as opposed to the less strict Reform Jews)
in the U.S., Israel, and London."Trembling Before G-d"
is unique in that director Sandi Simcha DuBowski manages to
avoid the heavy-handedness that goes along with the territory
of so many documentaries. She presents the diverse subjects--
which include a young, HIV-positive Hasidic man in London
who's also an avid drag enthusiast; an out middle aged man
who tearfully still yearns for acceptance by his elderly father;
and a Brooklyn woman who divorced her husband to come out
as a lesbian-- in such a manner that the audience doesn't
need the benefit of a "who's-right-and-who's-wrong"
debate. Rather than being angry and seeking to "fight
the system," almost all of these subjects face sadness
resulting from the internal conflict of being gay  but
also being unflinchingly dedicated to their religion, which
is so engrained in their childhood, family history, and daily
lives. In one segment, a Jewish lesbian wife-- filmed in silhouette--
speaks about her depression resulting from what she feels
is a failure to please her husband. In another, a young Orthodox
lesbian receives the perfunctory Sabbath phone call from her
parents, knowing that her parents disapprove of her relationship
with her partner but feel obligated to make the weekly call.
The call brings her to tears. DuBowski avoids giving too much
background information about the history of Judaism and homosexuality.
With the emphasis on real-life human experiences, narrative
isn't even necessary-- the subjects' words and faces make
the big picture as clear as can be. However, the director
does give the audience the benefit of translating the occasional
Yiddish and Hebrew expressions used in the film into English,
through the use of subtitles.
 Ultimately,
"Trembling Before G-d" is enlightening and provocative.
But the film doesn't offer any concrete solutions-- after
all, with this difficult subject, there are no easy answers.
What does emerge is the need to continue to study and explore
religious teaching-- more specifically, balancing traditional
theories with the very real subject of modern human emotions
and lives. This will definitely be a challenge for our community
in the future.
|
|
