Speedway Junky
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Movie Reviews of Speedway Junky
Movie Review: A pleasant surprise
Summary: 4 Stars
I saw this movie at the SF G&L film festival. I wasn't expecting much, esp. considering the title. But the movie was much better than expected, with great acting, a compelling story...much better than the fluff you see lately in G&L-related movies.Movie Review: Well done !!
Summary: 4 Stars
This film was well made and enjoyable. An excellent story and very well made. Gus has done it again. The acting was good and well timed lines worked powerfully. A good movie investment.Movie Review: Watch it with the director's commentary "on"
Summary: 3 Stars
I've never recommended a DVD solely for the director's commentary before, but I'm doing just that with Nickolas Perry's "Speedway Junky" (1999). The film itself is a totally predictable, sanitized view of Las Vegas street hustlers that contains two very good performances (one by someone you'd never expect), one terrible performance by a badly miscast former child star and a dual ending that is both misguided and, in the case of the tacked-on "happy" ending, insulting to the audience's intelligence. In all, "Speedway Junky" is a definite mixed bag; however, the DVD version is redeemed by an excellent director's commentary in which writer/director Perry provides an honest critique of his own work and gives an invaluable lesson on the process of making an independent film in today's Hollywood.
Jesse Bradford, who as a child gave one of 1992's best performances in Steven Soderberg's forgotten gem "King of the Hill," stars as Johnny, a teenage drifter who is hitchhiking from Los Angeles to Daytona Beach to join the Nascar circuit as a pit crew worker. To fund his journey, he takes a detour to Las Vegas, hoping to parlay his meager assets into enough money to complete his trip and then live on until he finds work. Unfortunately, within minutes of his arrival in town, he loses his money and all his possessions. His circumstances look bleak until he catches the eye of Eric (Jordan Brower), a gay teenage street hustler who falls in love with him at first sight and takes him in. Eric also initiates him into his seedy world and extended family, including his adopted "mother," an ex-showgirl and junky wonderfully played by Daryl Hannah, and various friends and "associates," including a shady fellow hustler named Steven (Jonathan Taylor Thomas). Although Johnny is straight, he and Eric form a strong friendship and bond which gets them both through the bleak days ahead, as Johnny vainly tries to earn money by hustling women and Eric's shady friends threaten their very existence.
The main problem with "Speedway Junky" is that it so predictable that the audience will know exactly how it is going end almost from the moment it starts. It is also extremely derivative of countless earlier, and better, films, including its obvious main source of inspiration--John Schlesinger's 1969 Oscar winner "Midnight Cowboy." As for the performances, they are uneven, to say the least. Jesse Bradford is an excellent young actor, but he overacts constantly and gives a totally annoying performance as Johnny, which isn't good when you are the film's hero. And poor Jonathan Taylor Thomas is simply horrible as the devious hustler Steven; in fact, after the shock value of hearing the clean-cut former child star use four letter words and graphically describe anal sex is over, his entire act becomes tiresome until late in the film when he is required to become vicious and then he is laughable. On the other hand, Hannah is wonderful as a faded beauty who has hit rock-bottom, and Tiffani-Amber Thiessen and Patsy Kensit have nice cameos as two of Johnny's potential female "tricks." And then there's Jordan Brower, who is simply wonderful as Eric, giving the kind of eye-opening, and wholly unexpected, performance that in a better, and more widely-seen, film would have brought him a great deal of attention. He is simply working at a level the rest of the cast, with the exception of Hannah, don't come close to reaching. In fact, his scenes with Hannah provide all of the film's best, and most realistic moments. (Take special note of Eric's "breakdown" scene which is beautifully rendered.)
As for the film's other problems, they are numerous and start with the weak screenplay, which ends by trashing the most sympathetic character in the film and then tacks on a happy ending that is unbelievable, to say the least. But don't take my word for it, just listen to writer/director Perry's own commentary, which leads me back to where I began. The commentary is extremely illuminating in that Perry explains every single detail of the production of the film and why he did the things he did. Why did he add a silly, and unnecessary chase scene halfway through? Why was Jonathan Taylor-Thomas cast in a role he was clearly wrong for? Why does he have a long and boring credit sequence at the beginning when it clearly hurts the flow of the film? And why the heck did he trash the one gay character in the film and not predict that audiences would hate him for it? For that matter, why did he include the ridiculous final scene? He answers all these questions and in the process teaches us all that even in today's independent film world, to get financing for a film you have to make the same kind of compromises that are necessary when working with the studios. It is an eye-opening lesson, to be sure, and one that all aspiring filmmakers would do well to learn from.
In all, "Speedway Junky" is a failure, and an extremely unlucky one at that. After sitting on the shelf for two years it finally received a theatrical run at the Regent Theater in Los Angeles starting on August 30, 2001. Eleven days later the twin towers fell and moviegoing did a nose-dive, ending whatever chance this film had of having a theatrical life. It's right where it belongs--on DVD, with its excellent commentary giving it a reason for existence. ** (out of *****) for the film and **** for the commentary.
Movie Review: Unrequiteable Love
Summary: 3 Stars
"Speedway Junky" shows the growing relationship of two teenaged hustlers in Las Vegas. Eric (played by Jordan Brower) is experienced and gay; Johnny (Jesse Bradford) is a novice and straight. Johnny has run away from home to gamble his savings in Las Vegas in the hopes of becoming a stock car racer in North Carolina. In separate moments of distraction and panic, he loses his money and his duffel bag, leaving him destitute. Eric, attracted to Johnny, takes him in. Eric introduces Johnny to a group of young delinquents, whose dominant personality is Steve (Jonathan Taylor Thomas). Eric and Steve are eager to help Johnny get oriented and successful. Johnny rapidly gets used to shoplifting, joyriding, and safekeeping others' drug stuff, but the sexual and romantic sides of Johnny are more complicated.
Johnny is straight and would like nothing better than to have his first success at giving a woman an orgasm. He gets opportunities, some comic and some injurious, with a newly-wed, a high-class hustler, two beauties [photographed for Playboy!], and with a more mature friend of Eric's mother (Veronica, played by Daryl Hannah). Not many normal men, much less a down-and-out teen, would get such a string of scoring opportunities. Still, it's just the thrill of the sex itself to him.
Meanwhile, Eric has fallen in love with Johnny and does what he can to build the relationship. Eric has Veronica as an understanding confidante. Although Johnny starts out bawling out his shock at meeting a chickenhawk, Johnny slowly gets more assured and trusting with the gay Eric and eventually offers to take Eric away with him on an undefined basis to North Carolina.
The action accelerates when Steve has an immediate need for cash and finds a willingness to do what it takes to get himself out of the bind, regardless of the consequences to Eric or Johnny.
The movie is nicely acted (I especially liked Jordan Brower's performance as Eric.) and photographed.
The movie-makers do not present a single view of how to take the film.
Certainly, despite the topic, it is not a titillating skin flick. The only depictions of prostitution are of getting into or out of cars and a comic scene where Johnny is picked up momentarily by a fancy female prostitute. Johnny goes shirtless some, as does a significant drug dealer once. One woman takes her blouse off, keeping her large bra on. Eric jumps from afar into a swimming pool. The film is about relationships, not titillation, nor is the movie a condemnation of street life.
The relationships are tricky. Eric loves Johnny. Johnny thinks Eric is the best friend he ever had. Still Johnny and Eric both have (different) relationships with Veronica, and Johnny's plans won't include Eric forever. At the movie's end, it is not clear whether Johnny thinks of Eric or Veronica at all or if they are filed away as a weird, unmentionable interlude in Las Vegas. The audience will have to decide whether Eric or Johnny is the moral focus of the film and what the film is to mean.
Movie Review: Buy only if you are a VERY big fan of Jesse Bradford
Summary: 3 Stars
This movie is not nearly as good as L.I.E. The film runs like a bunch of slides which are out of order. Jesse can act, but he seems totally homophobic, even heterophobic at times. He was supposed to give Darryl Hannah an orgasm, but no lips were kissed, no clothes came off, and they both seemed pretty turned off. He rejects his "best" friend's overt come ons, but still gets alone with him at every opportunity. The music really sucks throughout the movie. There are cast members from "Saved By The Bell" in one scene. There is a totally unnecessary cameo by the fat kid that was in the "Sandlot." He is no longer fat, and normally he acts a lot better too.
To top it all off, the real villian in the movie is a totally miscast Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I think he deserved the "Sandlot" guy's role as a freaky cowboy john with a stun gun.
The movie was 30 minutes too long, with a tacked on ending! There is NO closure in this movie whatsoever. The only real performances came from Darrly Hannah, whom I don't normally like, and the guy who wanted Jesse to be more than a friend.
As many of the reviews show, there are an awful lot of stereotypes. My problem is that this movie reeked of potential, but some people in the movie, namely Bradford and Hannah, held back from the grittier material that is Van Sant's trademark. For all of you who buy this movie based on 5 stars, don't say I didn't warn you. If you want L.I.E., be aware that it involves kids that look much younger and has a very graphic undertone involving child molestors.