Speedway Junky Review
For a supposedly bunch of cultured,
educated, intelligent, and especially creative folks, gay people seem to make
the same movie over and over and over. "Speedway Junky" is old news.
Writer/Director Nickolas Perry mixes up "Midnight Cowboy," "Where
the Day Takes You," "johns," and an ABC Afterschool Special and
comes up with a concoction so bland that you'll find yourself pushing it around
on your plate, wondering what to do with it.
The story focuses on a naive county boy runaway (Jesse Bradford) who comes to
Las Vegas to strike it rich so that he can become a race car driver. Of course,
he is practically robbed, raped and beaten by the time the first reel is over.
The film's most nauseating segment concerns a businessman who picks up the young
boy for obvious reasons. Of course, Jesse is blind to the whole scenario until
it gets real obvious. It's revolting stereotypical crap.
But Jesse is fortunate enough to meet young Jordan Brower, a gay urban hustler
who takes him under his wing. Jordan has his sights on Jesse but he's such a
sweet young gay hustler that he wouldn't dream of forcing himself on the other
boy. They become fast friends when Jesse gets the shit kicked out of him and
Jordan nurses him back to health, like the good homosexual teenage boy that he
is. Of course, Jesse is straight, so Jordan is wasting his time here. Wow - how
novel!
Along the way there is much more trash. Jonathan Taylor Thomas plays the king of
the strip, a teen hustler who does it all if the price is right. Of course, the
biggest draw here is to see the wholesome milk-drinking TV star say "fuck"and
talk about taking it up the ass. Whoopie. Thomas does the best he can, but he is
relegated to the backdrop of the Jesse/Jordan love story - or rather, the lack
thereof of it. Thomas also has to compete against some of the worst acting in
the world, brought forth by Daryl Hannah, Tiffany Amber- Thiesen and some
unknowns who were unfortunate enough to be cast here. It's a shambles.
If there is any savior of the piece, it is Brower who does his absolute best
here to bring his gay teen character to life. He's might be quite good with the
right director and costars. The scenes between him and Hannah almost work. A
particularly good scene comes when Brower cries in unrequited love while his
friend Jesse makes it with Hannah. The scenes are quick cut back and forth but
the heterosexual scene doesn't go far enough. We know why Brower is in anguish,
he is thinking of Jesse with the older woman. The scene with Jesse and Hannah,
however, is so dull, so lackluster, so bland that it doesn't really work. Brower
would be thinking of his love interest in bed with the woman, not just him
kissing her tenderly. It just doesn't go far enough. It doesn't have enough
oomph. It's too damn Hollywood "safe." Too bad Brower works so hard
for almost no payoff. That's his problem in the whole movie. He's the only one
on screen with any fucking chops.
Perry somehow talked Gus Van Sant into producing this piece of drivel. Hope Gus
did it as a tax write-off. Why would he produce a watered-down drab rip-off of
his own "My Own Private Idaho?" "Speedway Junky" is pure
soap opera. There is no spark here, no joy, no fun and nothing new. Same shit,
different film. Perry doesn't even seem to be trying. There is no glimmering in
his direction. There is not one interesting shot (does the camera even move?)
and definitely no unifying theme or motif or visual sense. Even Las Vegas as a
backdrop looks bland. In many ways, it would be more fun to sit in the 4 Queens
casino on the strip and drop quarters in the slot machines than to sit through
this sorry waste of film. But occasionally you hit a small payoff, and Brower
pops up with another good bit of acting in an otherwise barren wasteland of
lost, pointless neon.
Notes: Also with Warren G., Erik Alexander Gavica (who is particularly bad),
Patrick Renna Music by Stan Ridgeway. Produced by Golan/Globus Bradford's
credits include "Romeo + Juliet" and "Hackers." Brower's
include TV's "Teen Angel" and "The Big Green" (also with
Renna).
Budget was $1 million. Shot in 24 days in the summer of 1998. Exterior filmming
in Vegas, interiors shot in L.A.
Personal Notes: Seen on 8/28/99 as part of the Austin Gay and Lesbian
International Film Festival. The director, an extremely nice man, was in
attendance and did a Q&A session. Among other tales was the story of hiring
JTT. Balthazar Getty had been hired to play the role of Steven but showed up
incapacitated and unable to stand, let alone act. Perry was given 48 hours to
find a new teenage "name actor" or the film would be scraped. JTT was
on hiatus during the summer from "Home Improvement" and accepted the
role after being faxed pages of the script.
Perry did not write the cross cut scene where Bradford and Hannah make love and
Brower cries. He had those as separate entities. The editor did this and showed
it to Perry who wisely saw it's genius.
Perry said that he thought of Brower's character as a sort of saint but did not
consciously act visually on this idea. He said many people see religious imagery
in the film. I myself saw a scene where a hubcap in the background was lit so
that it became a halo over a scene. Perry said this was not a conscious thing.
Perry said he had written many scripts about L.A. fringe youth but none had
sold. He made a short film called "Must Be the Music" (shown at agliff
in '96) which Van Sant saw and liked. The director agreed to work with Perry
about the time he was coming off the phenomenal "Good Will Hunting"
which helped spark interest in his script for "Speedway Junky" and got
the ball rolling.
Perry said the only thing his producers required in the film was a "car
chase" scene to which he obliged.
Perry said his next project was that he was hired to write a script about a rock
star who fakes his own death after his biggest hit so he can find the girl of
his dreams. Uck!
At this time, the film is still seeking a distributor.
Also in the attendance of the screening was Jim Fall, who directed the film
"Trick."
I saw a couple of people I have meet at agliff events tonight, including a guy
named John who stopped me in the parking lot after the film. We discussed it for
about 45 minutes. He was very nice.
Report Card
Script: F
Acting: D+
Cinematography\Lighting: D-
Special Effects\Make Up: F
Music: D-
Final Grade: D-
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