Adaptation of a play.
A pre-stardom Kevin Bacon plays a sleazy, grimy, gay prostitute. He offers an older trick (Orson Bean) a young gay man. The problem is the kid dies and Bean is on the way. What to do?
I never saw the play but it can't be as dull as this. The acting here is good--Bacon looks terrible (as he should) and Bean tears the scenery, and the plot is interesting...but this is just boring! People just stand around and talk, talk, talk endlessly. I looked at my watch more than once. And seeing the nude, dead body of a young kid constantly during the second act is disturbing.
Director Paul Morrissey does try different things to liven this up. There's a break in between where the two acts took place on stage (the screen stayed black for a minute or two) and the last section is shot in split screen. It's interesting but Morrissey doesn't seem to know how to USE split screen (like Brian DePalma does) and it ends up not adding anything to the movie. However there is one very funny sequence when the hustlers argue on how to use the NYC subway.
It's too bad the script didn't match up with the acting. Worth seeing to see Bacon play a totally amoral, sleazy hustler.
Also Esai Morales (!!!) is the cast. This is probably his first film.
A pre-stardom Kevin Bacon plays a sleazy, grimy, gay prostitute. He offers an older trick (Orson Bean) a young gay man. The problem is the kid dies and Bean is on the way. What to do?
I never saw the play but it can't be as dull as this. The acting here is good--Bacon looks terrible (as he should) and Bean tears the scenery, and the plot is interesting...but this is just boring! People just stand around and talk, talk, talk endlessly. I looked at my watch more than once. And seeing the nude, dead body of a young kid constantly during the second act is disturbing.
Director Paul Morrissey does try different things to liven this up. There's a break in between where the two acts took place on stage (the screen stayed black for a minute or two) and the last section is shot in split screen. It's interesting but Morrissey doesn't seem to know how to USE split screen (like Brian DePalma does) and it ends up not adding anything to the movie. However there is one very funny sequence when the hustlers argue on how to use the NYC subway.
It's too bad the script didn't match up with the acting. Worth seeing to see Bacon play a totally amoral, sleazy hustler.
Also Esai Morales (!!!) is the cast. This is probably his first film.