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The Fractured Mirror

Created by Nathan Rabin

Nathan Rabin's Happy Place's Definitive Guide to American Movies about the Film Industry

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The Fractured Mirror: Best Friends (1982)
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Feb 06, 2023 at 07:20:51 AM

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The Fractured Mirror entry: Straight-Jacket (2004)
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Feb 04, 2023 at 03:21:50 PM

Straight-Jacket (2004) FM

The raging homoerotic subtext of the Rock Hudson-Doris Day romantic comedies of the 1950s and 60s becomes the explicitly gay text of television veteran turned filmmaker Richard Day’s charming 2004 pastiche Straight-Jacket. In that respect it’s also a moderately more gay, low-budget version of Peyton Reed’s delightful 2003 throwback comedy Down with Love, which, unlike Day’s independent labor of love, had the resources to replicate the look and feel of the movies it’s lovingly sending up.

Matt Letscher stars as Guy Stone, a hunky matinee idol modeled on Rock Hudson. Guy begins the film blissfully leading a double life as a wildly popular heterosexual movie star in public and a promiscuous, insatiable gay libertine in private.

The closeted stud’s decadent life is turned upside down when rival actor Freddie Stevens (a scene-stealing Jack Plotnick, exuding desperation and sleaze from every pore) threatens to out him, costing him his career and a plum role in Ben-Hur in the process.

Guy marries oblivious, lovestruck secretary Sally Stone (Carrie Preston) to hide his sexuality only to fall in love with Rick Foster (Adam Greer), the sexy, soulful and politically conscious author of the book that Guy’s latest film is based on. Straight-Jacket delights in winking knowingly at the leering gay undercurrent of Eisenhower-era escapist fare.

It takes an unexpected turn towards the serious in its third act once Guy must choose between ideals he never even knew he had and his lush life as a major movie star when he’s asked to name names for the House Un-American Activities Committee

A movie that doesn’t seem to be about anything beyond its own cleverness and bitchy wit becomes a morality tale about a shallow man’s search for meaning. Straight-Jacket is a lot of fun before gets an unfortunate case of Social Consciousness but if it begins stronger than it begins it’s nevertheless an entertaining, affectionate riff on the incontrovertibly gay essence of ostensibly straight Eisenhower-era war of the sexes romantic comedies.

The Fractured Mirror entry: Susan Slept Here (1954)
almost 2 years ago – Thu, Feb 02, 2023 at 12:00:38 PM

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The Fractured Mirror: Break a Leg (2005)
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Feb 01, 2023 at 09:14:33 AM

Break a Leg (2005)

The aggressively mediocre 2005 show business satire Break a Leg belongs to a robust micro-genre of crime comedies that depict the kill or be killed aspect of the film industry literally through darkly comic tales of ambitious strivers whose path to movie world success is greased with blood and littered with the corpses of their rivals.

John Cassini, who co-wrote the screenplay with brother Frank, plays Max Matteo, a passionate, idealistic artist who is repeatedly passed over for plum roles due to nepotism and celebrity worship.

The frustrated actor finally snaps and kills a rival to score a role. Exhilarated by his first taste of real success, Max keeps killing and maiming professional adversaries in order to get ahead. Max’s pragmatic crime spree attracts the attention of law enforcement, who set up a fictional movie to bust the bloodthirsty and competition-poisoned actor.

Cassini’s charisma-impaired lead would be unlikeable and off-putting even if he were not a murderer. Break a Leg’s main plot is a metaphorically clumsy and obvious non-starter and Cassini is continuously upstaged by celebrity cameos and juicy supporting turns from Jennifer Beals, Eric Roberts, Kevin Corrigan and Night Court’s Charlie Robinson.

There’s some funny stuff happening on the film’s periphery but the tired conceit of a show business wannabe killing and maiming for a shot at the limelight continues to be a bust.

The Fractured Mirror entry: Hollywood and Vine (1945)
almost 2 years ago – Tue, Jan 31, 2023 at 11:40:25 AM

Hollywood and Vine (1945)

After stealing scenes in the Blondie movies as Blondie and Dagwood’s dog, a prolific canine acting legend known as Daisy after his most iconic role, got his very vehicle in the rickety 1945 show-business comedy Hollywood and Vine.

Wanda McKay and James Ellison star as the film’s fetching human leads Martha Manning and Larry Winters respectively. He’s a hotshot New York playwright who comes to Hollywood to write a script about the movie business, something he knows nothing about, and ends up befriending Emperor (Daisy), an attention-hungry pooch who’s smarter and more talented than most of the people in Hollywood. She’s a small town beauty who heads to the show-business capital to make it as an actress.

For reasons far too stupid to go into, the handsome writer goes AWOL from his employers and works undercover as a soda jerk under the name Larry Summers while Martha gets a small role in a movie that leads to big things for Daisy when she brings him to the studio and he gets cast in a film. Super-stardom quickly follows for the performing pooch, along with a cigarette endorsement deal and all manner of human scandals.

Hollywood and Vine is a profoundly silly fluff, an agreeable goof that gives its canine star yet another opportunity to strut his stuff but otherwise angrily demands to be forgotten, and quickly.