Dusty and Sweets McGee, 1971 - ★★★★½
REVIEWED
Maybe, just maybe 'Dusty and Sweets McGee' is the holy motherfucking lost grail of counter culture drugsploitation movies. It starts with the intention of fooling the audience into thinking they're watching a real documentary (I'll be honest I dived into it under the false pretense it was, but it didn't take long to realize its not), at the start it notifies us that all the characters are played by real people, using their real names. What follows is 100 minutes of screen gold (well kinda more brown). We follow a set of lowlife heroin addicts and hustlers, plus a new couple to the scene, dabbling in the might of the horse for the first time. The characters speak candidly sharing their life stories, while the film itself cuts between dramatic scenes and spoken ones randomly throughout.
How the hell have I never heard of, nor seen this 70's WB movie before (my only guess is somehow it got held up with copyright issues or something, can understand lesser companies movies going AWOL but not WB). Its like watching Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy & My Own Private Idaho rolled into one, with Reservoir Dogs 'K Billy's Super Sounds of the 70s' playing as its musical backdrop. I must confess beforehand they were all movies I greatly respected and deemed extremely original, after seeing this I'm not so sure I'll feel the same.
Speaking of the soundtrack its truly jaw dropping, the music choices are amazing covering 50's doo-wop through to 70's classic rock, it even features its own fabtastic DJ named Weird Beard. Visually the film looks aged slightly, but that raw 70s era holds up well (at least it does for me). Acting isn't perfect but its sufficient to the characters and their stories. The actors clearly stayed up a few nights to give them the appearance of being tired and drawn, or maybe they really dabbled a little in the old H, hehe kinda 'Taking drugs to make movies to take drugs to' to coin a phrase.
The stories and dialog are the key to it working, they're either true (say taken from dudes in twelve step programs) or they're extremely well researched. I've not seen a Floyd Mutrux directed movie before, but I plan on changing that sooner or later. Of his writing credits i've seen, they go from pretty drool worthy to very watchable.
Originally taken from Letterboxd
REVIEWED
"I'm only a freak by the standards I accept."
Male Hustler
How the hell have I never heard of, nor seen this 70's WB movie before (my only guess is somehow it got held up with copyright issues or something, can understand lesser companies movies going AWOL but not WB). Its like watching Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy & My Own Private Idaho rolled into one, with Reservoir Dogs 'K Billy's Super Sounds of the 70s' playing as its musical backdrop. I must confess beforehand they were all movies I greatly respected and deemed extremely original, after seeing this I'm not so sure I'll feel the same.
Speaking of the soundtrack its truly jaw dropping, the music choices are amazing covering 50's doo-wop through to 70's classic rock, it even features its own fabtastic DJ named Weird Beard. Visually the film looks aged slightly, but that raw 70s era holds up well (at least it does for me). Acting isn't perfect but its sufficient to the characters and their stories. The actors clearly stayed up a few nights to give them the appearance of being tired and drawn, or maybe they really dabbled a little in the old H, hehe kinda 'Taking drugs to make movies to take drugs to' to coin a phrase.
The stories and dialog are the key to it working, they're either true (say taken from dudes in twelve step programs) or they're extremely well researched. I've not seen a Floyd Mutrux directed movie before, but I plan on changing that sooner or later. Of his writing credits i've seen, they go from pretty drool worthy to very watchable.
Originally taken from Letterboxd
