Hustler White (1995) – Classic Film Review 871

A in-jokey homage to classic Hollywood cinema, writer-directors Rick Castro and Bruce La Bruce’s 1995 gay movie Hustler White transposes the action of Sunset Boulevard from the silver screen’s old movie backlots to the business of mid-Nineties male prostitution and the porn industry.

Its main saving graces are its total lack of finesse and pretension as a latter-day Andy Warhol-style movie, plus its camp sense of humour as a satirical black sex comedy about gay hustlers and their customers in Santa Monica, California.

Tony Ward stars as ‘Monti’ Ward and Bruce La Bruce plays Jürgen Anger in a movie that’s cheerfully amateurish and scrappily made but kind of sexy and fun.

Is it art or porn? At least it comes with the helpful sentence ‘the difference between art and pornography is the lighting’ to help you make up your mind.

Shown by the BFI and distributed in the UK by Millivres. The advertising line’s particularly witty, more than the film unfortunately: ‘See it with someone you’ve paid for.’ Director Rick Castro has a cameo as the Clumsy Porno Cameraman.

Bruce La Bruce was born Justin Stewart on January 3 1964 in Southampton, Ontario, Canada. A director and writer, he is also known for Gerontophilia (2013), Otto or Up with Dead People (2008) and Pierrot Lunaire (2014).

He’s a contributor for Exclaim! and Eye magazines. Along with Ben Foster, he co-wrote the original version of the Screeching Weasel song I Wanna be a Homosexual, as heard on the band’s Thank You Very Little CD.

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 871 derekwinnert.com