The Fluffer (2001)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

There were some big...innuendos in this film.Was that Debbie Harry? Well, the pregnant dancer did make an effort.Beefacake, too. An effort in an outrageous caricature of Brando's Kowalski.The rest is blown, blown high in the sky.No, thanks.P.S. Why not try the contrary: portray life of porn actors as dreary civil servants, and the way through bureaucracy they come to fall in love with each other, and save the American Cream.P.S.2 This is unbelievable. One has to write ten lines at least. Since it is so, then, to paraphrase Dali: mediocre directors (and writers), no matter how much you strive to be bad, you will always remain mediocre. Little tough, that Dali? Well, he doesn't chew his premise.I don't care about a premise if the execution (no pun intended) does not respect it. Why should I?

I am surprised at how many people have given 'The Fluffer' a poor rating. I found the film to be very entertaining. The acting was excellent, the writing was excellent, and the sexual tension is incredibly well portrayed. I would say it is not as good as My Own Private Idaho, but it was certainly up there with it in quality. The main character, Sean McGinnis (played by Michael Cunio) was very believable and I would like to see him in more films. The porn star was played very well by Scott Gurney who has since gone on to become the host of a reality TV program (what a shame).This is a definite surprise film – I expected b-grade and definitely got a-grade.See it; you will not regret it.

Considering the good reviews this movie received, I expected quite a bit more. A young, just-off-the-bus L.A. neophyte with "camera experience" tosses a coin to see which direction his career will go -- legit or porn. Expecting to rent "Citizen Kane" one night at the video store, he accidentally winds up with a man-on-man movie entitled "Citizen Cum" and ends up drooling obsessively over its top blue star, Johnny Rebel. Before you know it Sean, our obsessive young protagonist, says the heck with mainstream and is scouting out the Men of Janus Studio (where Johnny Rebel is an exclusive client) praying for "behind"-the-scenes work, or anything else, so he can worship his newest wet dream up close. And so it goes...What begins promisingly as a mild spoof on the porn business goes off the deep end and into so many tangents that "The Fluffer" more-or-less limps along until the final reel, with no one tangent garnering much interest. As played by Michael Cunio, the role of Sean is a meek, wimpy, sad-sack little patsy who you know is going to pay dearly for his impulsive and unrealistic choices. It's hard to sympathesize (though I certainly can relate) with a man-child who doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of finding true love with a straight, completely self-serving "gay-for-pay" hunk. Had he settled for living out the fantasy of the title role, he could have packed it up, called it a day, and carved a big notch on his bedpost. But then we wouldn't have had much of a story, would we? Suffice it to say, Cunio doesn't have the requisite charm or charisma to shoulder the weight the film begins to take on.Now Scott Gurney is another story. An incredible speciman to watch and watch again, Gurney is the appetizer, main course and dessert of this movie meal. The embodiment of every superficial male fantasy in his various outfits, he alone is worth the price of admission. My favorite is his Indian gear which fronts the movie title "Poke-a-Hot-Ass." He's absolutely hot. He knows it. We know it. And he plays it as such. Gurney's laconic, superficial Johnny has a laidback, mesmerizing charm and streetwise surliness that keeps us from drifting too far off. He IS the movie.Roxanne Day as "Babylon" the stripper-girlfriend of Johnny gets the most dramatic mileage out of the movie, having a number of taut, tense scenes. But the rest of the characters are cardboard in presentation. A few familiar names add little value to the movie. Comedian Taylor Negron, singer Deborah Harry, and character actors Tim Bagley, Richard Riehle and Robert Walden are completely wasted in tacky, thankless roles. The movie strives to be a gay version of "Boogie Nights" but is undone by indifferent, poorly motivated characters and an uninventive, often turgid script. It has neither the grit nor the daring. Mark Wahlberg's Dirk Diggler may not have quite the initial impact or animal magnetism of Gurney's Johnny Rebel, but it's a much more fleshed-out, tormented character, in pants and out, with lots of colors and shadings. Though both are afforded the familiar dramatic seductions of succumbing to the hand-in-hand pressures of porn fame and heavy drugs, the ego-driven complications of Dirk Diggler are infinitely more fascinating. Walden has the Burt Reynolds overseer role. But, again, it's predictable, flat and, though it's written to shock, comes off embarrassing.As the title indicates, "The Fluffer" is a movie tease for gay men that shoots for more than it should. But Johnny Rebel WILL definitely keep your interest. And if Scott's legit career ever comes up a cropper...well, let's just say his BVDs could still sell DVDs.

The Fluffer was a great story with some terrific performances. Roxanne Day as "Babylon" and Michael Cunio as "Sean" were both outstanding in their character portrayals of two people obsessed with something they couldn't have. What makes them even more impressive was the fact that the object of their passion was the one major flaw in the film. "Rebel" was as lifeless and uninteresting a character as I've ever seen on film.So, while Cunio and Day were working so convincingly at wrestling with their pain, Scott Gurney's "Rebel" made their job nearly impossible. It also made it nearly impossible for the audience to care. But somehow, Cunio and Day did make us care, and that is the art of acting at its best. The supporting cast was very good, the script was very good, the direction just so-so.