Review by Dan Taylor
Leave it up to Scott Alexander
and Larry Karaszewski — the "Weird
Biopic Guys" who also wrote MAN IN
THE MOON, the Andy Kauffman film by director
Forman and starring Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito,
and Paul Giamatti —
to bring us the patriotic docudrama/love
story about a pornographer (Woody Harrelson),
the woman who loves him (Courtney Love),
and the attorney trying to keep his ass
out of the slammer (Edward Norton). And
just for the record, Alexander and Karaszewski
don't just do weird biopics. They
also brought us PROBLEM CHILD and the remake
of THAT DARN CAT.
My
first run-in with Larry Flynt's Hustler
took place during my days as a trash-picking
newspaper boy during the 1970s and 80s.
(Don't laugh...it bought my first car and
helped pay for college.) While some customers
on my route read more mainstream porn like
Playboy and Penthouse, the
guy up the street often tossed the big H
into his weekly trash. In the days before
tree-hugging-granola-crunchers made us recycle
every piece of detritus, my neighborhood
trash runs rescued countless items of high
quality junk. Much to the chagrin of my
folks.
Sadly enough, I can still
remember one of the pictorials from that
issue, an "Older Woman/Young Gigolo"
kinda thing. It was probably a young chick
wearing a powdered wig, but WHO CARED?!
It was porn, she was naked, and it was MINE!!
I was usually too chicken to hold on to
the mags for long...it would've been death,
and extensive therapy for my corpse, had
my folks ever found my little "harem."
Then again, tossing the material only led
to bolder attempts at finding bigger and
better material. Looking back on those teenage
years, I have to admit that I was an oversexed
little delinquent, and I'm lucky I never
got caught.
Did I know at the time that
editor Flynt was bucking the system, looking
out for my First Amendment rights, and banging
his drugged-out, jailbait stripper girlfriend?
Hell no. If I had, I'd probably have found
a way to get a subscription. It wasn't until
1984 -- and Larry's ill-fated run for the
Presidency -- that I began to grasp exactly
what the crippled sleaze-merchant stood
for. Then again, at the time, I just dug
the fact that he took full-page ads in USA
Today and threatened to show hardcore
porn during his tv commercials. (Too bad
the movie passes over these days. We only
get a brief glimpse of Harrelson sporting
a "Larry Flynt for President"
t-shirt.)
Enough about my teenage masturbatory
fantasies. How's the flick? Were you to
base your impression of Mr. Flynt solely
on TPVLF, you'd think him a warm and cuddly
First Amendment poster boy, even if he does
exploit nude women. Glossing over details
like his previous marriage, the flick takes
definite liberties with the character, softening
the blow (no pun intended) for the sheep.
What speaks volumes, however,
is the fact that the flick and its stars
are being touted for Oscars! Remember, director
Milos Forman brought us ONE FLEW OVER THE
CUKOO'S NEST and AMADEUS, contenders for
Top 10 in their respective decades. Does
TPVLF occupy such rarified air? Hardly.
ED WOOD -- another of the screenwriting
duo's efforts -- is far superior, telling
an actual story without a disjointed focus.
Frankly, any number of competent Hollywood
hacks could've made FLYNT. In itself, that's
a troubling commentary on the state of American
filmmaking.
As for the over-hyped performance
of Ms. Love as Flynt's bisexual, AIDS-addled
junkie wife Althea...I know my Mom always
said to say nice things or don't say anything
at all, but I wouldn't be much of a critic
if I followed that advice. I'd heard
rumbings that Love's portrayal wasn't particularly
difficult, considering that she's certainly
done the research to play a skanky, doped-out,
annoying piece of white trash. Super. Too
bad the performance is annoyingly one-note,
and pales in comparison to the work of Chloe
Webb in SID AND NANCY (a biopic that didn't
pull any punches with its subjects).
On the plus side, at least
Crispin Glover and Vincent Schiavelli got
some work.
