Review by Louis Fowler | Available from PervertTheMovie.com
The "Bosomania" ethoses of legendary filmmaker Russ Meyer – probably my favorite ethoses of all time – are alive and well and captured in all their jiggly, nipptastic glory in PERVERT!, a hilarious throwback to the late-60s/early 70s nudie action-comedies pioneered by Meyer, fully capturing the genius’ style and attitude, wherein sexually vivacious (and bountifully voluptuous) vixens tore the screen apart, outrageously causing havoc for the wonderfully-stereotypical, square-jawed dumb-cluck men that tried to keep them down.
Porn star (and California gubernatorial candidate) Mary Carey leads the cast as the lusty, busty and most definitely nubile Cheryl, who, seduces her old man boyfriend (and avid meat-sculptor) Hezekiah’s son James, home from college and hiding a terrible, hand-lotioned past. Once Hezekiah discovered he’s been cuckolded, Cheryl mysteriously disappears – and soon enough, so does dad’s next hooker-girlfriend. Is dad a crazy killer prone to hyperbolic monologues? What’s the voodoo drenched secret James is hiding? And who – or what – exactly is the unseen entity that may be the titular pervert?
Utilizing every wonderful Meyer-ism – square-jawed, men’s men who rant in the most eloquent way possible; teasing sexuality that takes you right to that point just before hardcore; avant-garde interstitials that act as a sexy Greek chorus and a late 60s garage combo score – director Yudis has made a loving tribute that gets everything right. Meyer’s films weren’t just about bouncing jubblies (as people seem to only remember) – they were twisting, at times brutal (and gore-filled) satires on the whole men’s magazine culture.
Mary Carey delivers a hilariously blood-pumping performance that is wonderfully unself-conscious, true to the spirit of Uschi or Kitten. As the grizzled perv Hezekiah, Darrell Sandeen is laugh-out-loud funny. Nearly every line he delivers cracked me up – he’s got such a belief in the brilliantly ludicrous things he’s saying, that you can’t help but fall for it.
A wild ride from beginning to end, PERVERT! is total unadulterated, unapologetic, unpretentious fun – just the way Russ used to make them!
