Bruce Labruce's second feature is an ironic skit on Fellini, with liberal doses of Andy Warhol, John Waters and various 70s gay porn directors thrown in. Labruce plays Bruce, a washed-up gay porn star whose story is being exploited by an ambitious indie filmmaker called Googie. The film is a collage of Googie and Bruce's old films, Googie's current footage of Bruce and interviews with Bruce's former co-stars and lovers. They're all a pretty vain and hopeless bunch, and as such the film communicates something about contemporary values in a certain sub-set of the population as well as satirising the vanity of mainstream stars (in this respect, it resembles Morrissey's Heat).
The film ranges from entertaining to patience-trying. The most interesting elements are the almost hardcore sex scenes, recreations of Bruce's movies, which hold the frame just above the "action" so that fellatio or f**king is implied but never graphically seen. We do see some erections and a lot of butt, including a great deal of Bruce's.
How well you take the film will depend on your sense of humour, your aesthetic tastes and perhaps your politics or sexuality. I can't say that the film is a deep experience, although the very vapidity of what we are shown is, as I say, a deeply ironic comment on the people it shows us and the wider Western society that created them.
One bit jolly good entertainment, one bit excruciating boredom and two bits a hell of a horny time, mostly because the young guys Bruce films himself having sex with are totally darn hot.
The film ranges from entertaining to patience-trying. The most interesting elements are the almost hardcore sex scenes, recreations of Bruce's movies, which hold the frame just above the "action" so that fellatio or f**king is implied but never graphically seen. We do see some erections and a lot of butt, including a great deal of Bruce's.
How well you take the film will depend on your sense of humour, your aesthetic tastes and perhaps your politics or sexuality. I can't say that the film is a deep experience, although the very vapidity of what we are shown is, as I say, a deeply ironic comment on the people it shows us and the wider Western society that created them.
One bit jolly good entertainment, one bit excruciating boredom and two bits a hell of a horny time, mostly because the young guys Bruce films himself having sex with are totally darn hot.