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Nudity Required
2003 - NR - 101 Mins.
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| Director: Steven Boe | | Producer: Charlie Nguyen | | Written By: Steven Boe, Whitney Boe | | Starring: Keith Andreen, Roberto Raad, Whitney Leigh |
| Review by: Harrison Cheung |
| Official Site: www.nudityrequiredthemovie.com |
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Making its premiere at the LA First Glance Film Festival, NUDITY REQUIRED is a highly enjoyable debut from writer/director Steven Boe. It’s a wonderful reminder that independent film excels at irreverent points of view and that the world known as Hollywood can often be blind to everything outside the valley.
Todd and Oded, two friends working in a bowling alley in small town Bremerton, Washington, are suffering from major problems dealing with the opposite sex. Todd has just been dumped by his longtime girlfriend who has decided to move to Los Angeles to become an actress while Oded is frustrated by his lack of regular relationship – he gets laid once every three months by the horny wives of sailors at sea.
The solution? As the two friends commiserate the loss of Todd’s girlfriend, they diss all that is Hollywood, including some cutting commentary about actresses, Steven Seagal and Tarantino, they come to the conclusion that they will make their own movie to enjoy a booty casting call.
NUDITY REQUIRED is a labor of love, a poke at Hollywood while clearly begging to get a foot in. (Boe’s production is called NonLA but he is, in fact, a SoCal native) Reminiscent of Kevin Smith’s CLERKS, the riffing between the two friends and their hard-as-nails bowling ball waitress, is well written and lovingly caustic. It’s clearly the stuff of cult film, firmly stroking the Internet-cyber-porn-geek fantasy that anyone can be a film maker to meet the babes.
Are there problems? Just a couple. There’s an annoying extraneous character that pops up in the middle of the movie and seems to have no purpose – the role looks like a bit of patronage for a producer. And the ‘movie-within-a-movie’ is sometimes clumsily handled. It’s fun stuff that these two bowling alley ‘clerks’ are making a movie called HOLLYWOOD CHICKS, but they teeter between making porn or an adolescent wet dream.
NUDITY REQUIRED is also occasionally overwhelming with its lengthy comic diatribes that seem wrong for a particular character at the time. It’s just another blatant opportunity for Boe to show off his considerable writing skills – whether it’s ragging on Bill Gates, the porn industry, or women in general. But when the observations are out of character, the lines seem like Boe product placement – you’re wondering why that particular character said what they did. Ironically, when the bowling alley owner looks at the script for Hollywood Chicks, scribbled on a couple of napkins, he declares, “Look, there’s your problem. Too many words!” And I immediately agreed.
But with a super cast, it’s easy to forgive the film’s few shortcomings. Keith Andreen plays Todd with a sweet lugheadedness. Roberto Raad as Oded deftly balances between channeling the ghost of Pauly Shore and Jason Mewes. And Whitney Leigh, as the bad-ass waitress pining for her jailed boyfriend, is reminiscent of a young Stockard Channing meets Joan Jett, tough and no nonsense but with a sweet, smart center. Given how green the cast is, their performances are all believable and well-acted. It’s testament to how well the film has been cast and directed that there’s such believable chemistry here.
NUDITY REQUIRED is a smart, funny labor of love and a must see for Hollywood veterans and wannabes alike. (It wouldn't hurt Kevin Smith to watch it as a reminder of the type of dialogue he used to be able to write). It’s a refreshing slap in the face about the seemingly lost art of dialogue and it’s a clear precursor of greater things from Steven Boe.
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