Runs at Varsity, Fri., April 11–Thurs., April 17. Rated R. 103 minutes.
Nobody can reduce tawdry material to doddering quaintness like the British, but this staggeringly inane joint effort of U.K., Belgian, French, German, and Luxembourgian film financing represents a true coalition of the witless. With her dying grandson unable to afford life-saving treatment in Australia—so much for Michael Moore's miracles of socialized medicine—a matronly middle-aged widow (Marianne Faithfull!) timidly answers a London sex club's job posting. Dutifully divested of diva-hood, Faithfull is stationed at a glory hole with enough lotion to capsize Eliot Spitzer and instructed to polish every knob that pokes through. Voila! She finds mad money, likely romance, and newfound self-esteem, as so often happens with aging sex workers in the anonymous coin-op jerk-off trade. The whole ridiculous thing could serve as one of Lars von Trier's lurid melodramas of female abasement, if director Sam Garbarski's tone didn't fluctuate between kitchen-sink miserabilism and the smirky archness of a Very Special Are You Being Served?—and if it weren't such a pack of cozily sanitized lies. Except, of course, for the movie's urgent warning about the hazards of "penis elbow."
Looking for America
She’s been on 11 blind dates in the last two months; not one of the me... More>> Lisa Harris Gallery, Daily from Mon., May 19 until Sat., May 31, 10:30am-5:30pm
I Am My Own Wife
The Pulitzer- and Tony-winning I Am My Own Wife had a long and complicated ... More>> ArtsWest, Every week Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday from Wed., May 14 until Sun., June 1, 7:30pmEvery week Sunday from Sun., May 25 until Sun., June 1, 3:00pm, $10-$29
Looking for America
She’s been on 11 blind dates in the last two months; not one of the me... More>> Lisa Harris Gallery, Daily from Mon., May 19 until Sat., May 31, 10:30am-5:30pm
Corigliano Quartet
The first movement of John Corigliano’s 1995 String Quartet edges out ... More>> Meany Hall, Thu., May 22, 8:00pm, $20-$33
Circus Contraption's The Show to End All Shows
I have to admit, those white-faced circus freaks were always a little scary... More>> Theo Chocolate, Every week Thursday, Friday, Saturday from Fri., May 16 until Sun., June 22, 8:00pmEvery week Sunday from Sun., May 18 until Sun., June 22, 7:00pm, $20-$25
I Am My Own Wife
The Pulitzer- and Tony-winning I Am My Own Wife had a long and complicated ... More>> ArtsWest, Every week Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday from Wed., May 14 until Sun., June 1, 7:30pmEvery week Sunday from Sun., May 25 until Sun., June 1, 3:00pm, $10-$29
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
Reader Comments