|
|
Steve Balderson's PHONE SEX Your first thought when you get a disc in the mail with a title like PHONE SEX is that you're gonna see something similar to the softcore movies on Skinemax. Fortunately (or, unfortunately, if you're into Skinemax movies), Steve Balderson aims squarely for the mind, instead of directly below the belt... PHONE SEX is a project where an assortment of people respond to a seemingly simple question: "What is sexy?" When that assortment includes people like Ron Jeremy, Margaret Cho, Pleasant Gehman, Jane Wiedlin, Jayne County, Josie Cotton, Penn Jillette, Lloyd Kaufman and Tura Satana, you can bet that the answers are going to be very interesting, to say the very least. It's sort of a cross between a documentary and an art installation... accompanying the aural tracks is a visual slide show, functioning as support and/or counterpoint to what is being said... sort of an audio/visual Rorshach display. It's feature-length (95 mins.), but I'd hesitate at calling it a straight feature. Interesting as it is, it doesn't really deviate from that format, and after 20-30 minutes, one starts to get restless, if you're watching straight through, like a regular film... but that's not necessarily the recommended watching experience. One can sample it in bits and clumps; or have it playing in the background as ambience at a party or relaxing at home... Balderson states that it is intended to be used in a variety of fashions, so one's initial reaction would depend a bit on the manner in which one experiences it. The responses to the question are as varied as the people who were asked it - and surprisingly, there's some very thoughtful answers, as well as a bit of cheekiness. PHONE SEX is an interesting experiment; it's closest cinematic cousin would be Diane Keaton's HEAVEN, although HEAVEN is more of a 'normal' film experience than PHONE SEX... PHONE SEX doesn't quite succeed as a cinematic film, but then, it's not supposed to be - it's a visual audiobook, of sorts, to be sampled at will; an artwork that has a great hook for the Mainstream. Definitely recommended. Robert Hubbard
|