A bit of a 'stop/start' affair for me today as I had a few things going on. I've been meaning to catch 'She Mob' since it initially ran out of print with AGFA, recently it got a reprint. I picked that up. and nearly 4 years after its initial home video debut, I really regret not grabbing this one sooner.
The film predominantly revolves around a group of all Lesbian/Bisexual convicts (led by the VERY domineering 'Big Shim') as they try to plan their next move after a daring escape. The problem? the girls are bored and after a stretch in the pen, they want a MAN.
So; Big Shim gets on the phone and arrives on a friend of a friend 'Tony'. Tony's a gigalo who's currently shacked up with the owner of a very prestigeous business...the problem is, the owner is already in a very public relationship, and the affair could break her business. She's loaded and has basically been keeping Tony 'on retainer' to help her with all her 'stressful' situations.
Big Shim offers Tony good pay and a night of fun if he'll come and entertain the girls. So he heads over, only to find that, once he's confirmed he's on the line to a very wealthy client, they kidnap him, tie him to a bed and basically commit to doing devious acts on him until the wealthy client pays a bribe to both have him released AND to keep quiet about the affair.
And the rest of the movie from that point on is Tonys repeated attempts at escaping and being Dommed by the convicts. All the while our wealthy client assigns scantily clad gumshoe for hire 'Sweety East' to get on the case of rescuing Tony.
This film is INCREDIBLY surface level, but a lot of fun all the same. The 'She Mob' are all overtly campy, WAY over the top and their aggressive outbursts OOZED a certain 'John Waters' charm that is quite hard to replicate in the post modern age.
The scripts pacing is pretty solid, though it is a bit repetative. Basically; if you go into this knowing what your getting, I think you'll be fine. But without the awareness that this is a very OTT small budget production, you may think it drags a bit.
The dialogue is EASILY some of the best reasons to tune in, its just so effortlessly mean that I honestly really quite fell in love with it.
The direction is...unique, for lack of a better word. with a clear vision on display as the mob terrorize Tony...But whether that 'clear vision' is a good one will I feel largely be down to audience preference. I liked it. I thought it had the rough and ready gritty edge that these kind of Roughie pictures really quite thrive on. And I really enjoyed seeing an early example of role reversal within the Roughie genre (I.E girls throwing a guy about, rather than the other way around)
Cine is messy, but has a charm to it, the edit is VERY rough around the edges, in part because of the small crewing list for this picture resulting in people editing the film who wernt necessarily considered 'Professional' and in part because, over the years, the films lost a few inches off its reels, leading to jumpy and fragmented sequences where dialogue jumps all over the place.
The performances are SUPERBLY cheesy, given this was one of the first 'Something Weird'/ 'AGFA' collaborations, I think they really chose a good one to get things started, to give you an idea of the kind of content 'Something Weird' is known to distribute. Everyone has a very blunt, loud and aggressive attitude in this thing. and for SOME bizarre reason, this is a film with a near all female cast where its actually more surprising to see a women DRESSED than it is nude.
The scores like an explosion in a Jazz factory. I really liked this thing on the whole, its badly made, weirdly written and paced, and outside of fetishists and weirdos who thrive on cheesy and strange cinema I dont know WHO this film was for ultimately, But I had a good time with it (especially when compared to movies like 'The Violent Years' or 'A Smell of honey, A Swallow of Brine!') and I could easily see myself rewatching it again.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/she-mob/
No comments:
Post a Comment