FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.


Sleazy gay porn a limp affair
Don't get hustled by unstylish infomercial
by Maurice Yacowar

Hustler White
Starring Bruce LaBruce and Tony Ward
Directed by Bruce LaBruce
Friday, June 6 - 12 at the Uptown Screen

I treat films like I do people. Yeah, most are better in the dark. But mainly: if you can't say anything nice about them, wait till they've left.

So here's what nice I can say about Hustler White. It's only 80 minutes long (though it feels like three hours). And hey, if heteros can have crumby porn flicks, why shouldn't gays? Shouldn't every menu balance beefcake and cheesecake? Isn't Equal Opportunity crap what democracy is all about?

This film is a fictional cruise through the gay hustler scene around El Lay's Santa Monica Boulevard. (That's where Eddie Murphy goes to buy his Popular Mechanics at 4 a.m.)

The subterranean budget and chopped timeline have been excused as post-modern, but that's a gloss here for incompetent.

Canadian director Bruce LaBruce stars as Jurgen Anger (no relation to Kenneth). The prissy fella pretends to study the scene, but he's really hunting his crush, hustler Monty (Tony Ward, Madonna's ex).

Everything is camp. Jurgen is a walking parody of Brian Linehan. The film opens with a parody of Sunset Boulevard, but takes it nowhere.

The film's joys include scenes of sado-masochism, a stump-hump and more floppy penes than you can shake the proverbial stick at. If that's your bag, enjoy. But don't go expecting ideas or style.

I guess it's good news that the Alberta Film Classification Services let this film be shown - what's the apt word here? - uncut. Freedom includes the right to mess up. This film's freedom will help clear the way for better treatments of the subject.

I gather that except for model Ward and director LaBruce the cast are all denizens of the gay meat-market. As the film is an infomercial, then, we shouldn't expect it to say anything.

For the record, Labruce's earlier features were No Skin Off My Ass and Super 8 1/2. I don't feel a thesis coming on.

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