Review of Variety (1985) by Marrick A — 28 Apr 2009

This is an intermittently interesting movie far more concerned with mood than plot, which is sometimes a problem since it also concerns itself with being a neo-noir. Bette Gordon does have a feminist angle here with a protagonist who goes down into the porn underworld with a job as a ticket window of a Times Square porn theater (yeah, it's the 80s), but after a strong start she goes into a modus operondi that is at times intriguing (that scene where she looks at the screen in the movie theater seeing herself and the middle-aged "businessman"), at times really annoying (Sandy McLeod's very bad recitation of lines, as opposed to real acting, when giving the synopses of the porn movies to uncomfortable Will Patton), and at times just quite dull (she walks around following this mysterious man with possible criminal ties... but why, and what does it lead to?).

Bottom line, when Luis Guzman steals the show, you've got um.. something weird and not always successful. It's respectable, just not very memorable. Taxi Driver for chicks it is NOT.