As was to be expected, this presents more of the same from The Andy Warhol Factory, even more so because this is actually a continuation of the story started out in FLESH (1968). Even though lasting for a strained (and strenuous) 110 minutes, as a film it's undeniably superior to the previous outing: the plot, if so it can be called, now sees Joe Dallesandro's hustling years behind him and he just bums around and fills himself up with dope, while doing the occasional robbery to procure the money needed to satiate his fix! Likewise, the diminutive go-go dancer/stripper played by Geri Miller in FLESH returns here just for the opening sequence where it is clear that she has finally had the breast implants she craved (and whined for) so much in the earlier film!
Otherwise, we meet a variety of new (and irritatingly neurotic) characters: first and foremost is Holly Woodlawn, a temperamental transvestite with bad teeth who also happens to be Dallesandro's landlady and lover. The scene showing her satisfying 'herself' sexually with a beer bottle because Joe is impotent due to his excessive drug use is both unnerving and hilarious; as is the final sequence of the film where the low-life couple are visited by a social worker with a foot fetish (he's willing to throw the necessary red tape aside and recommend them for welfare status, if only Holly would let him have her shoes which she picked off the garbage to begin with)! Woodlawn's performance was much admired at the time and, reportedly, gay Hollywood director George Cukor had even actively campaigned for her to be considered among the year's Oscar nominees!!
The gallery of society drop-outs also feature Woodlawn's ugly pregnant sister who seduces Dallesandro but is caught in the act by Holly who, in a hysterical fit, throws her sibling out into the streets despite her condition; a girl (played by one Andrea Feldman, more on her later when I get to the third entry in the series) with an annoying drawl and obsessed with laying her hands on some LSD truly, she is one of the most annoying characters ever committed to celluloid; and a young suburban couple whom Joe meets while attempting to rob their place: the wife is a chatterbox nymphomaniac and the whole scene degenerates into a violent family squabble just as Dallesandro OD's on crack and gets unceremoniously ejected from the apartment!
Therefore, it goes without saying that, apart from copious full-frontal nudity again, primarily from Mr. Dallesandro (as had the case with the appropriately-titled FLESH) the film contains graphic scenes of drug-taking. For the record, the "Holly" and "Little Joe" characters referenced in ex-Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed's 1972 hit single "Walk On The Wild Side" actually refer to drum roll, please Holly Woodlawn and Joe Dallesandro!
Otherwise, we meet a variety of new (and irritatingly neurotic) characters: first and foremost is Holly Woodlawn, a temperamental transvestite with bad teeth who also happens to be Dallesandro's landlady and lover. The scene showing her satisfying 'herself' sexually with a beer bottle because Joe is impotent due to his excessive drug use is both unnerving and hilarious; as is the final sequence of the film where the low-life couple are visited by a social worker with a foot fetish (he's willing to throw the necessary red tape aside and recommend them for welfare status, if only Holly would let him have her shoes which she picked off the garbage to begin with)! Woodlawn's performance was much admired at the time and, reportedly, gay Hollywood director George Cukor had even actively campaigned for her to be considered among the year's Oscar nominees!!
The gallery of society drop-outs also feature Woodlawn's ugly pregnant sister who seduces Dallesandro but is caught in the act by Holly who, in a hysterical fit, throws her sibling out into the streets despite her condition; a girl (played by one Andrea Feldman, more on her later when I get to the third entry in the series) with an annoying drawl and obsessed with laying her hands on some LSD truly, she is one of the most annoying characters ever committed to celluloid; and a young suburban couple whom Joe meets while attempting to rob their place: the wife is a chatterbox nymphomaniac and the whole scene degenerates into a violent family squabble just as Dallesandro OD's on crack and gets unceremoniously ejected from the apartment!
Therefore, it goes without saying that, apart from copious full-frontal nudity again, primarily from Mr. Dallesandro (as had the case with the appropriately-titled FLESH) the film contains graphic scenes of drug-taking. For the record, the "Holly" and "Little Joe" characters referenced in ex-Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed's 1972 hit single "Walk On The Wild Side" actually refer to drum roll, please Holly Woodlawn and Joe Dallesandro!