THE FLUFFER -----------
When Sean McGinnis (Michael Cunio) gets ready to watch his "Citizen Kane" rental, he discovers the tape inside isn't the classic, but "Citizen Cum," a gay porno flick starring Johnny Rebel (Scott Gurney). Besotted by the well built star, Sean acquires a job as cameraman at Men of Janus films (the joke's funny, but over milked), but instead of the romance he'd hoped for with Rebel, he's relegated to the role of "The Fluffer."
Codirected by indie filmmaker Richard Glatzer and gay porno director Wash West, "The Fluffer" examines the relationship between the idolized and their idolaters. While their film makes more trenchant observations about porn industry workers than "Boogie Nights" in its first half, it loses it way when it focuses on a love triangle in its second. The relative inexperience of the film's unknown leading trio as compared to a more seasoned supporting cast contributes to a flaccid wrap up.
As Sean grows bolder in approaching the self-possessed Rebel, he's dismayed to learn that the man he's been fluffing (a fluffer helps male porn stars retain a state of arousal) is a straight, 'gay for pay' guy with a stripper girlfriend. When Mikey (Rebel's real name) returns home to Julie (Roxanne Day), though, he's as remote with her as he is with Sean. 'Don't hustle me,' Julie says to Mike when she suspects he's cheating. Julie quickly lightens the tone, though, so that Mikey can perform once again.
When stripper Babylon (Julie's stage name) discovers she's pregnant, boss Marcella (Deborah Harry) advises abortion, but Julie tells Mike she's keeping his child. Mike responds with a petulant descent into drugging and is so astonished when Men of Janus's Sales Manager Chad Cox (Robert Walden, "All the President's Men") doesn't welcome him back with open arms, he commits a violent act. Suddenly Sean wins out over Julie and harbors Mike, but finds out what Julie already knew - that Mike can't see beyond the glare of his own reflection.
Wash, who wrote "The Fluffer," mines his experience in the industry to get his audience thinking about the difficulty of the work and the additional pressures porn players face maintaining personal relationships. Rebel's like an athlete, or better yet, a bull on a stud farm, paid for his physical prowess, and the daily strokings he receives feed his ego. The matter of fact technical descriptions Sean receives from old hand Sam (Richard Riehle, "Bandits") counterpointed by Rebel and his male costar's agreement to be quick, humorously sum up the workaday aspects of the porn film set. Silver (in a noteworthy turn by Adina Porter), a lesbian working at Janus, explains her presence by her preference for gay porn over the 'sucky' lesbian variety. When Wash attempts to plumb the philosophical depths of the 'fluffing' concept, however, the marvelous industry players are left behind and his leads and his writing begin to tremble under the added weight.
Director of Photography Mark Putnam takes far greater care composing his shots than the 4 cameramen fired in a row at Janus. The film looks far better than the subject it portrays normally would.
"The Fluffer" starts with a bang, but can't quite sustain the expectations it raises.
C+
For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com
laura@reelingreviews.com robin@reelingreviews.com
========== X-RAMR-ID: 32144 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 731854 X-RT-TitleID: 1111448 X-RT-SourceID: 386 X-RT-AuthorID: 1487 X-RT-RatingText: C+
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews