Supertrash January 15th, 2010

A couple more movie updates.

The Warhol Museum, is showing exploitation film double features in conjunction with the Supertrash poster show. The show runs until the end of the month, so if you're a fan of exploitation, horror, action, or 70s porn, I highly recommend checking out the show.

This past Friday was the next to last double feature, with William Friedkin's "Cruising" and "Can't Stop the Music" starring the Village People (?!?!?).

2. Cruising
Directed by William Friedkin (most know for the Exorcist) and starring post-Godfather, pre-Scarface Al Pacino, Cruising tells the story of an under cover New York Cop (Pacino as Steve Burns) trying to catch a serial killer terrorizing the late 70s New York leather bar scene. I'd seen the trailer a few times, but never the whole film. It is a very gritty (and most likely, exaggerated) depiction of a small subset of the gay culture in a very specific time period, and for that alone, it was interesting. It's rumored that nearly 40 minutes of the film was cut to get an R rating. Friedkin claims it had no direct effect on the plot, but I sort of find that hard to believe. Many strings are left untied, and in the end, it's still quite unclear exactly what the film is trying to tell the viewer. Was Burns correct? Or was he the killer? Or did this lifestyle lead to violence, and there were multiple killers? Has Burns been changed by this whole event, or will he be able to leave it in his past? Overall, an "enjoyable" experience, especially for those interested in very grimy New York exploitation films, even if this is really the intended audience.

3. Can't Stop the Music
Wow! Just wow! What a double feature. Straight from the S&M serial killer to the pseudo-documentary about the Village People and co-starring Olympian Bruce Jenner and Steve Gutenberg. I have to admit, the only thing I know about the Village People is like two songs, so I have no idea if this film even depicts any level of reality. I'm guessing the answer is no, but stranger things have happened. Essentially, this is the gay disco version of the Muppets Take Manhattan or something. Overly long, clocking in at over 2 hours, it's generally entertaining, although they could have cut most of the musical numbers completely to suit my tastes. Generally known as one of the worst movies of 1980, garnering plenty of Golden Raspberry nominations and winning (losing??) for Worst Screenplay and Worst Picture. I'm not sure I could sit through it again, but I'd highly recommend it to any fans of high camp, so bad it's good, garbage cinema.