Black White + Gray

Black white and gray is the story of Sam Wagstaff; a legendary New York socialite and art collector. The most high profile relationship both professionally and personally was the one he has with photographer Robert Mappelthorpe; a sexy young wonderkind 25 years his junior when they met. Everyone who has any interest in modern art knows who Mappelthorpe is, but maybe not how he got to the level of fame he achieved. That’s where Sam comes in. Though both Mappelthorpe and Wagstaff died of Aids, the story is told by their best friends and confidantes, and films of themselves. The poet/ musician Patti Smith was a close personal friend of the couple for many years as was author Dominc Dunne. Sam was from a prominent New York family and was an extremely handsome and charming socialite that was in the closet for many years. His background was in advertising as Warhol’s was in the 50’s but he hated it with every fiber of his being. He went on to be a curator, and then a very zealous collector of photography. When the 1960’s and Stonewall rolled around, Sam found himself and his own voice and began exploring every dark corner of gay life. In one of those dark corners is where he found Mappelthorpe. He’d be a respected Park Avenue curator during the day, and a Bowery crawling sex club leather boy at night. Seeing the process of how Sam created the downtown art scene with his tastes and collections was amazing. He hosted Truman Capote’s legendary Black and White Ball at one of his galleries. He helped break some of the biggest modern artists and sculptors of the day with his patronage. He’d also influence Mappelthorpe’s tastes in the sexually deviant as well with his collections.

Sam would eventually change his direction, and later in life begin collecting American Silver which at the end of his life would fetch nearly a million dollars at auction at Christie’s. He’d leave the bulk of his fortune to Mappelthorpe, which he’d action off in chunks as his own health began to fail and he could no longer work. Dunne tells a story of going to see Mappelthorpe when he was close to death, laying in the middle of his living room on a bed. Robert tells Dominic that he wants to take his picture. Dominic says ‘I was afraid he would die in the middle of snapping the picture; that was how close to death he was. You see my fear in that picture.’ It was a voyeuristic view into the inner workings of Wagstaff’s intimate relationship with Mappelthorpe and the power of celebrity. A definite must see of all hardcore photogs.

Me Without You

Me Without You is a fascinating lament about toxic female friendships. This story starts out with the main characters, Marina (played by Anna Friel) and Holly (played by Michelle Philips) as grade school BFFS in England in the mid seventies. They spend all of their time together and even dub themselves Harina; merging their names into one. As the years move along we see our girls as precocious teens, full of brooding and in love with punk. Marina is dubbed as the pretty, outgoing one who will always get whatever she wants either by charm or by her looks. Holly is the shy, bookish one who follows Marina’s lead in most situations; wishing she could be more like her. Marina has a cool older brother, Nat; that of course Holly is secretly in love with. Marina overhears about a party her brother will be attending and that members of the Clash are supposed to be at as well. The two girls dawn their best garbage bag outfits and spiked hair to crash this incredible party; that turns out only to be a bunch of her brother’s friends, doing drugs and playing records quite loudly. Desperate to seem cool, Marina tries heroin for the first time. While Marina is in her dream, Holly allows herself to be used by her love interest Nat for drunken sex. Marina stumbles upon the scene and becomes enraged at her friend. Nat does have a conscience afterall and gives Marina a note to pass to Holly about his feelings. Naturally Marina rips it up and never tells Holly, allowing her to believe she was used.

Skip forward to college, the girls are at the same school in the 80’s and still besties. Holly crushes her literature professor Daniel (played by Kyle McLaughlin) and tries to impress him with her intellectual prowess. He is impressed by her absolutely, however out of jealousy Marina seduces Daniel into bed with her behind her BFF’s back. Eventually Holly begins a secret affair with Daniel as well, and the rub is that neither girl knows the other is sleeping with the professor. As things would have it Marina’s older brother Nat shows up, distraught over a relationship with a narcissistic French actress that won’t love him back. Next we know Holly and Nat have picked up where they left off, and Nat is begging Holly to be with him. She explains that she is seeing someone, but Nat is her one true love so she will break it off with the professor. She goes to the professors house only to find Marina leaving his flat and passionately kissing him on the stairs. Holly is beside herself with heartbreak that her best friend would do this to her. So much so that she discards Nat’s love in the process; sending him sprinting back into the arms of the French actress. The years play on, and the two are constantly intertwined in one sick mind bending toxic relationship after the other; until Holly can’t take it anymore and decides to move to the states to start over. When Marina finds this out she goes into thermonuclear melt down mode and begins begging with all of her might not to be left behind. You’ll have to watch and see what happens to the two friends when one stands against the other finally. Blazing HOT soundtrack is worth it. Excellently written.

Poker House

Poker house is a semiautobiographical of the teenage years of director Lori ‘Tank Girl’ Petty’s life in Iowa before she sought out fame. Her character in the movie is named Agnes, a 14 year old basketball star who works two jobs and cares for her little sisters Bee and Cammie the best she can. Her mother Sarah played by Selma Blair is a drugged out alcoholic prostitute who is obsessed with her pimp Duval played by Bokeem Woodbine. Duval is a despicable man who runs trade, and holds poker games at Sarah’s house and hustles everyone of their money. Despite how hard working and what a good kid Agnes is, she somehow manages to fall madly in love with Duval herself behind her mothers back, or under her nose whichever you prefer. Agnes makes out with Duval whenever her mothers back is turned, telling herself that he is the real thing. Agnes and her next younger sister Bee, try to scrape together money the best they can so they don’t have to depend on their completely dysfunctional mother for every little thing. Agnes delivers newspapers and slings burgers, and Bee collects bottles to turn them in for money. Little Cammie gets dropped at the local diner everyday where the owner Dolly watches after her. The local fixture is Stymie played by David Allen Grier, who also co-wrote the story. He is a somewhat mentally out of touch old man that seems to help look after the little girl each day. Making sure she gets fed, watches the soaps and gets enough juice to drink. When Agnes finishes her school and work for the day she picks her up.


One day Agnes has a big basketball game to go to, and that day her mother is throwing a party at the house attended by low life’s and hookers. The party rages out of control and the cops are called. Once everyone is cleared out and Sarah is passed out somewhere, Agnes and Duval sneak away like they usually do but this time he means business. The inevitable takes place, and Agnes is traumatized. She bolts for the bathroom to wash off the blood from her attack and her mother stumbles in. Agnes is hysterical and crying reaching out for her mommy. Sarah is so blitzed that she doesn’t even notice anything is wrong and tells Agnes to go to the store for alcohol and Newports. Agnes wants revenge on Duval and threatens to shoot him with his own gun. Sarah is so in love with Duval that she tells her hysterical daughter that ‘I can’t live without him so shoot me instead.’ This sends Agnes over the edge but she doesn’t kill anyone. She simply steals Duval’s Brougham with the vanity plates and 8 track and drives herself to her basketball game in time to make the second half. She sets a record that night in scoring points and helps win the game. Despite everything she has to endure, she comes out intact and still able to care for her little sisters. The narration can get a little heavy, but overall a quality film. Well done.

Wrangler- Anatomy of an Icon

Wrangler anatomy of an Icon is nearly a literal phrase; as Wrangler is Jack Wrangler the world’s first extremely popular gay male porn star; and the anatomy is literally is man junk. At the dawning of the sexual revolution, and the gay liberation movement, Jack was the right man at the right time. Ironically our man Jack grew up in a very well to do Los Angeles publishing family and struggled to find his professional voice, as well as his sexual identity in his early twenties, when he fell into porn acting. He’d then change his last name to Wrangler, after the very manly denim jeans, and a star was born. Jack would star in the very popular gay men’s film ‘Kansas City Trucking Company’ and become a porn sensation. He was the quintessential gay male fantasy, with his blond hair, deep tan skin, and oiled muscles. Many weren’t aware that he was actually sort of a short shy man in person, who really struggled with his self image, and sense of attractiveness in real life. At the height of his popularity, he’d book dates at porn theaters to meet fans, and do monologues whilst stripping and giving the full Monty. Jack would become so popular that a penis pump would be named after him called the acu- Jack. This pump would be mentioned a decade or so later in one of Prince’s songs called ‘Sexuality’.

It didn’t take long for Jack’s family to get wind of his shenanigans. Jack worried what his very controlling and withholding father would say about him being in these films. Oddly enough his dad was sort of proud of him, go figure. Jack would have several long gay relationships, but as his popularity grew his relationships would rip in half.

What made Jack a legend was his then bridge into straight porn. The gay community felt betrayed, and duped as Jack’s success skyrocketed into the stratosphere. Jack would star as the devil in ‘The Devil in Miss Jones.’ Movie series. Porn would become chic in the mid 70’s and viewing porn would become the fashion of the time. His fame would allow him to hob knob among other celebrities, and receive star treatment wherever he went. One night while at an upscale club for dinner the 40’s pop singer Margaret Whiting would catch his eye, and they would begin dating though Jack was nearly 20 years her junior. Jack and Maggie would fall madly in love and eventually marry despite the protests of Maggie’s grown daughter. The natural snags would happen as when a straight woman marries a gay man. However, regardless of the nastiness their love endured. Jack would leave porn to teach music to kids, then write a musical for Broadway that would win him awards. Jack would die of cancer in April of 2009 leaving an amazing entertainment legacy.

Ghost Ride the Whip

What do you get when you combine ecstasy pills, cars rolling with no drivers, and rhyme and meter rap? The Bay area Hyphy Movement. Hyphy is a slang for hyperactive, which is how people act when jacked up on X at a rap show. Our hero is Mac Dre, a wild skinny dude who is a cross between T oo Short and Shock G of Digital Underground fame, who both are coincidentally from the Bay area as well. The story is well documented by DJ Vlad, and interviews are done with Mac Dre himself, E-40, Keak da Sneak, MC Hammer, Too Short and Mistah FAB. They chronicle the humble beginnings of the movement in the streets of Oakland, which started with makeshift block parties that evolved into drag races that concentrated on a form of drifting cars in major roadways and intersections, of course before being caught by the police. The heart of the movement depended on artists selling their own work out of car trunks and in anyplace that would let them, including the corner convenience store.

The movement gathered steam and took on a different energy in about 1994 with the introduction of Ecstasy pills. The act of being high on the pills is referred to as ‘thizzing’. Rappers began to rap about thizzing all up and through their songs. I often wondered what would happen if X made it into the ghetto; a place full of poverty, heartache, struggle and pain. The feelings given by X were profound to the oppressed people in the hood and the practice of using X as an escape became commonplace. What concerned me is seeing young kids middle school age singing along in the crowds dressed in the rave-like garb talking about thizzing. One of the rappers said that he discouraged kids from thizzing, however kids do what they see older people do. As the movement jiggled and jingled on; our hero Mac Dre’s popularity grows by leaps and bounds. His music is getting popular all over the land and people want to get Hyphy with him all over the country.

The street foolishness also evolves from drifting and burning tires into ghost riding. Ghost riding is when a driver allows his car to roll at a very slow speed, usually less than 10 miles per hour and then gets out of the car and climbs onto the hood and dances or pretends to surf. If there are other occupants in the car they do the same, so you can see a slow moving car with 5 or 6 people standing on various parts of it with the stereo blaring some hyphy music. It’s no doubt something that sounds good when one is thizzing. One rapper made reference that if you want to be really cool, you do it on a residential street without hitting anything. If you really want to impress a girl, you get out of the car and walk next to it while talking to her. I couldn’t imagine a guy putting me through that. Ghostride the Whip is one of those movies that will leave you with a dropped jaw for sure. Check it.

Born In Flames is categorized as a science fiction film. There is a sista on the cover, so I guess I expected something like ‘Brother From Another Planet’ to jump off. I wasnt sure what to expect. This film was directed by Lizzie Borden, and naturally thought ‘Wasn’t that the chick that had the ax and gave her mother 40 wacks?’ It was made in 1983, but feels more like the 70’s. I have a suspicion this film took years to complete. It’s a feminist manifesto, about women taking control of their lives, and their safety. Women form gangs that roam the streets to protect each other. In one scene a woman stops to ask two men in broad daylight in Time’s Square for directions, and the men begin to forcefully flirt with her. They become overly aggressive, pushing the woman to the ground and begin to rape her. A swarm of women in tank tops and jogging shorts all with whistles, whiz to the scene on ten speed bikes blowing their whistles and warning the men to let the woman go. The attack is thwarted. In another scene a woman in a business suit is reading on the train. A man slides up to her and tries to flirt with her. The woman makes it clear she isn’t interested and moves. The man moves with her and becomes more aggressive. There are protector women on the train that confront the man and tell him to leave her alone. The man insults the protectors calling them names. This goes on all over the city. There is a montage of women’s hands working, and women who are artists, and activists speaking out against the way women are ghettoized by men in society.


I suppose the science fiction comes in because supposedly there has been a peaceful revolution and society is now supposedly a socialist one, yet women are still catching hell all over and not given equal access to jobs. Women are systematically fired and barred from ‘non-traditional’ types of work, therefore they mobilize themselves to change this. A woman named Adelaide is at the center of all the stories, beating the pavement, and trying to talk women of all walks of life. Some women are resistant to the ideology that Adelaide is presenting to them. Adelaide tries to talk the most popular female DJ named Honey about her plight; to see if she could get her platform on the radio and to more women. Honey is reluctant to go out on a limb for Adelaide though they have the same beliefs. Out of frustration Adelaide courts radical groups, and flies to Northern Africa to learn about women who are soldiers in armies there. She is immediately flagged by the FBI and is detained when she returns to the states. The movement takes off once Adeliade is jailed, but takes a turn no one was ready for, and women act up in protest. Powerfully written and always relevant. A must see for all female activists.

Mixed Blood is an underground crime classic. A bit of Bloody Mama meets Cotton Goes to Harlem with a little Godfather nod here and there. It reeks of racism and exploitation on many levels. In the film a woman called La Puta, a Brazilian mob boss settles in Alphabet City and sets up a drug business using underage homeless boys called the Maseteros. She uses the boys as her army of dealers and killers. La Puta has a son Thiago that she never lets out of her sight and shares a bed with. Thiago is devastatingly handsome, but doesn’t speak English well, and his mother eludes that he could be mentally challenged. The irony is that it could be that the actual actor, Richard Ulacia did have some sort of developmental issues and they simply wrote it into the script. You hear him speak, and you think English could be his second language, and Portuguese his first; but there is a little something more about his performance that makes you wonder. Ulacia himself so beautiful, that you can’t imagine that he didn’t take over Hollywood especially in the shallow 80’s, so he seems quite mysterious.

The gang, though they make lots of money selling drugs, live in an abandoned tenement building in complete squalor, so they can keep their eyes on their business. The enemy of the Masetero’s are the Master Dancer gang; who is led by Juan the Bullet. A well coifed Puerto Rican that sounds like he was raised in New Jersey with the Shore Kids. No, the Dancers don’t break out dancing, which would only add to the cheesiness of whole 80’s gang movie theme. It’s almost a shame that they don’t. The Maseteros are supplied by a man only known as ‘The German’ who has an open disdain for the minions selling his poison on the streets of Alphabet City. The German has a beautiful girlfriend Carol, who is rich in her own right; and seems to tolerate the German out of boredom. When Carol begins tagging along into the ghettos, she becomes drawn to the life in the ruins, and most of all to the irresistibly gorgeous Thiago. Carol befriends La Puta and is invited to the Puta’s grandson’s christening party, where choreographed violence breaks out, that rivals that of the Godfather. Thiago, in his overly simple way falls for Carol and beds her much to La Puta’s overbearing chagrin. Carol naturally wants to be able to come and go as she is used to; and not be confined to the few blocks of Alphabet City. She talks Thiago into cleaning himself up and going to a swank Manhattan bar on a date. When he is gone violence erupts, and more of La Puta’s boys are killed. To add insult to injury when Thiago returns home after the mêlée, he announces that he’s taking Carol to Brazil on vacation without La Puta. His mother pretends to be happy about the relationship, but naturally she has other ideas about her beloved son’s fate. She will not be disobeyed, so she hatches a plan to get rid of Carol completely.

When boys of the gang are killed La Puta insists Thiago combs the streets to find replacements. When the pickings are slim one of the gang suggests that they start recruiting blacks. (the word used isn't as politically correct) La Puta says only if they are Latin, she doesn't want 'Mixed Bloods' in her gang. Meaning African Americans. Go figure.

This film was directed by Paul Morriesy, the guy responsible for all of Warhol’s oh so very artsy films. This film has grit, and bite, and a sick sense of humor. This film is also known as John Leguizamo’s first movie, though he was completely cut out of it. His name still appears on the end credits. I wonder if he gets a check? LOL!