2002 prostitute movie
Rating: 12/20
Plot: The titular male prostitute wants to leave the business behind following a stint as a soldier but finds it difficult to escape his reputation and the influence of those around him.
This is Nic Cage's only directorial credit so far. Potential is shown, but there are a few naive greenhorn mistakes burdening this film and its story--a weird driving montage, the camera frequently in the wrong places or just in places that aren't very interesting, weird close-ups. Nic makes a cameo as a character called Acid Yellow, sort of a cross between Humpty Hump and Liberace, wearing a yellow suit, gesticulating unnaturally, snorting something, and exclaiming, "I love-co-cock!" Sonny's visit to Acid Yellow is where Cage goes for experimental. It's all hazy, and it somehow makes "A Fifth of Beethoven" sound more menacing than it already is. Speaking of music, Aronofsky's go-to guy Clint Mansell from Pop Will Eat Itself scored this thing with varying effects. There's a sex scene, one of a few blase-filmed ones, with some wildly inappropriate music. The dialogue between Sonny's love interest Carol (Mena Suvari, who shows less than James Franco in this movie) and an old guy is fabulous though:
Carol, robotically: That feel good, daddy?
Old guy: Oh, yes. Give it to me, baby.
Carol, still robotically: Like that?
Old guy: Oh, yeah! Faster! [pause] Gee whiz!
Gee whiz? I don't think I've ever said "Gee whiz" during sex. Maybe that's my wife's fault? James Franco's a little uneven, and I'm not sure I ever fully buy into the character although he's got charisma to spare even in a movie that's kind of dull. He does close his eyes a little too much while acting. He gets a pretty mean Cage-esque freak-out where he beats the crap out of the interior of his Trans Am though, and a slow turn while taking a bite out of a sandwich would be the defining moment of his career if more people saw it. Harry Dean Stanton is also in this, and he's always a treat. He gets the line of his career: "Hey. You got the prettiest pussy." What makes that better is that I think it's supposed to be a tender moment. Brenda Blethyn plays Sonny's mom and really overdoes things, almost biting off James Franco's head at one point. Her New Orleans accent was impossible for me to believe, and it goes all over the place. Some guy named Willie Metcalf oozed what I think of as New Orleans, but I've never been there so he's probably just oozing movie New Orleans. This does seem to be more of a cliched look at the city. There was some potential with this story and these characters, but this wasn't very well executed and bored me a little.
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