Dominick R Reviews

Dear Claudia (1999)

Desert island dick brains!

[18 July 2002]

The script for this film is wall to wall exposition and floor to ceiling cliches. The direction is at best dire and at worst dramatically incontinent. Who suffers more from the performances the actors or the audience I cannot tell. The director and the script should have been left with the plane in the first shot.That is at the bottom of the sea, for those who have not seen it. Brian Brown, Sorry, you have done some fine pieces but this is not one of them.

Inserts (1975)

Undiscovered gem of drama & cinema

[22 June 2002]

This films plot centers around the making of, probably one of the first, porn movies, Sadly when it was released it was pre-arthouse cinemas and pre-video, so it was lumped in with second rate soft porn flic houses around soho London. Consequently it died a lonely death. Around this time Art house cinemas were starting to emerge in University towns which is how I caught it late night in Edinburgh. I was just knocked out by it's sharp drama wrapped in a comedy that launched incredibly incisive comment. Bob Hoskins character as the wannabee hood getting irate when he discovers that Richard Dreyfuss's character, the has-been director, has removed the camera from the tripod, in shear enthusiasm, as he filmed the sexual act. 'How is that going to look!' 'It's not going to look, it's going to be looked at!' retorts Richard Dreyfuss character. The economy of the lines are brilliant! Yes this is a one room drama, which is a tall order for cinema and few have conquered it but this film does brilliantly.