The aptly named "Beefcake", currently receiving its U.S. theatrical premiere at the Film Forum, is an awkward mixture of documentary and docudrama that giddily celebrates the beauty of the nude (and nearly nude) male body as much as its ostensible subject, photographer-publisher Bob Mizer and his Athletic Model Guild.
Mizer, a sociological pioneer if there ever was one, prefigured the obsession with the male physique that is so prevalent in today's culture with his publication of such magazines as Physique Pictorial.
Unfortunately, director-screenwriter Thom Fitzgerald's ("The Hanging Garden") method of telling this potentially fascinating story doesn't entirely work. Weaving dramatic re-enactments and fictional characters into a conventional documentary approach, Fitzgerald has come up with a hybrid all too similar to the recent, much maligned Reagan biography.
The film details the beginnings of Mizer's career in the '50s; working out of his Los Angeles home (his mother sewed the scanty "posing pouches" the models wore), the bespectacled, bow-tied photographer set about to celebrate unabashedly the beauty of the male physique, photographing literally thousands of nearly naked young men. The results appeared in various muscle magazines and short films, which naturally were embraced by the gay subculture.
Mizer was harassed by the authorities and was even sent to jail for operating a prostitution ring, but nothing stopped him; his photography career continued until shortly before his death several years ago, although pornography had long before made his work obsolete.
As his trial made clear (the film uses dialogue from the court transcripts), Mizer was far from an innocent, but the tone of "Beefcake" is mostly lighthearted, depicting the photographer's home as a sort of summer camp for frisky young men. The film is never as illuminating or informative as it should be, despite interviews with such figures as fitness guru Jack LaLanne and many of Mizer's models, including Warhol star Joe D'Allesandro.
There are many scenes that cheesily and none too effectively attempt to dramatically depict what went on behind the scenes. Fitzgerald even creates a fictional character, Neil O'Hara (Josh Peace), a fresh-faced innocent not so subtly named after a character from "Valley of the Dolls". Mostly, though, "Beefcake" depicts, to a near-obsessive degree, the male forms with which Mizer was so enamored. If you're offended by the sight of many swinging penises, this is not the film for you.
BEEFCAKE
Strand Films
Director-screenplay: Thom Fitzgerald
Producers: Shandi Mitchell, Thom Fitzgerald
Cinematography: Thomas M. Harting
Editors: Susan Shanks, Michael Weir
Production design: D'Arch Poultney
Music: John Roby
Color/stereo
Cast:
Bob Mizer: Daniel MacIvor
Neil O'Hara: Josh Peace
Mrs. Mizer: Carroll Godsman
Running time -- 93 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Mizer, a sociological pioneer if there ever was one, prefigured the obsession with the male physique that is so prevalent in today's culture with his publication of such magazines as Physique Pictorial.
Unfortunately, director-screenwriter Thom Fitzgerald's ("The Hanging Garden") method of telling this potentially fascinating story doesn't entirely work. Weaving dramatic re-enactments and fictional characters into a conventional documentary approach, Fitzgerald has come up with a hybrid all too similar to the recent, much maligned Reagan biography.
The film details the beginnings of Mizer's career in the '50s; working out of his Los Angeles home (his mother sewed the scanty "posing pouches" the models wore), the bespectacled, bow-tied photographer set about to celebrate unabashedly the beauty of the male physique, photographing literally thousands of nearly naked young men. The results appeared in various muscle magazines and short films, which naturally were embraced by the gay subculture.
Mizer was harassed by the authorities and was even sent to jail for operating a prostitution ring, but nothing stopped him; his photography career continued until shortly before his death several years ago, although pornography had long before made his work obsolete.
As his trial made clear (the film uses dialogue from the court transcripts), Mizer was far from an innocent, but the tone of "Beefcake" is mostly lighthearted, depicting the photographer's home as a sort of summer camp for frisky young men. The film is never as illuminating or informative as it should be, despite interviews with such figures as fitness guru Jack LaLanne and many of Mizer's models, including Warhol star Joe D'Allesandro.
There are many scenes that cheesily and none too effectively attempt to dramatically depict what went on behind the scenes. Fitzgerald even creates a fictional character, Neil O'Hara (Josh Peace), a fresh-faced innocent not so subtly named after a character from "Valley of the Dolls". Mostly, though, "Beefcake" depicts, to a near-obsessive degree, the male forms with which Mizer was so enamored. If you're offended by the sight of many swinging penises, this is not the film for you.
BEEFCAKE
Strand Films
Director-screenplay: Thom Fitzgerald
Producers: Shandi Mitchell, Thom Fitzgerald
Cinematography: Thomas M. Harting
Editors: Susan Shanks, Michael Weir
Production design: D'Arch Poultney
Music: John Roby
Color/stereo
Cast:
Bob Mizer: Daniel MacIvor
Neil O'Hara: Josh Peace
Mrs. Mizer: Carroll Godsman
Running time -- 93 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/20/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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