Hustler White (1996)

hyped garbage

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

...and not the later "Serial Mom" stuff, but rather the much earlier, extremely low-budget schlocky shock-fare such as "Pink Flamingos". As has been stated here previously, whenever you have a writer/director/actor attempting to showcase their "talent" (see: lack thereof) you are usually in for some self-indulgent, cringe-worthy moments-- and LaBruce absolutely delivers. As this was done in the 90s before the advent of the digital media age, one can almost forgive the poor sound quality, "off" editing and low-quality shots in general...almost. Unfortunately there is no strong script, acting or dialogue to offset this "low budget" feel. The film almost seems like it was made as an inside joke for a close circle of friends of LaBruce, who consistently told him "you're so funny, you should totally make a movie about that!" Well...he did...and cinematography is all the poorer for it.

A lot of irony in this film. A pretentious reviewer could probably come up with some references to Derrida and self-deconstruction and how the ridicule the film got for the effeminate character who wishes to make a documentary of hustling in LA is a way of undermining the film itself, which indeed is something of a documentary of hustling in LA.It got some nice and crazy sex scenes, which are important.The overall feeling I have of the film is that it is like an artistic natural documentary, where the sad events, painful human conditions are like facts of nature, to be viewed, maybe briefly analyzed, but ultimately they are there and can't be changed. The story of "piglet" is like the bad consciousness of the film, however, the one condition where the film can't help but take sides.

It's fairly obvious that the man who pretends to be a director Bruce La Bruce ought to stick to doing strictly porn. His pretensions to art wouldn't be taken seriously in a Film 101 class at NYU.Performing for porn and acting are two entirely different skills and our director seems not to notice the difference or care. His performance as the effeminate writer is no homage to Truman Capote. If Truman were alive he'd sue. In fact if the sisters of the late Eigil Vesti are alive I hope they sue this man. Naming one of your characters with the same name of the victim of a sensational gay homicide is not my idea of satire.Back in my working days at the New York State Crime Victims Board, I got into the Norwegian Consulate to do the paperwork intake for a claim filed by one of the two sisters of Eigil Vesti. Eigil was a young and naive Norwegian kid who was picked up and killed for somebody's idea of kicks. Before his body was discovered with a black leather mask on his head, his picture was all over the Greenwich Village and Chelsea areas of Manhattan as a missing person for about three weeks.I really fail to see the humor in using the name of the victim of one of the many GLBT homicide cases I did a claim for. He was a beloved younger brother to those two women from Norway whose first visit to the USA was to bring back his body for burial in their country. Having dealt with Eigil Vesti's family, I see no humor in defaming his memory in this disgusting manner.The film was bad enough as it was, using Eigil Vesti's name was way beyond bad taste, it's despicable.

When the director is also an actor, you know you're in for some painful viewing. This movie is another case in point. LaBruce gets more and more self indulgent as the movie progresses, ending with a long scene of him kissing (very badly I must say) his true love Ward and then prancing away down the beach with him. As if to say 'this is my movie and i can do anything I want!' Totally ridiculous. Why do these directors do it? I guess it's because they can. Yes, there are some really morbid scenes of S&M (the one of the Vercase man being cut with a blade was really awful to watch), amputees etc. but that doesn't make this movie "edgy". I guess I ended up watching it because I'm gay and this is a gay movie, but how I suffered!