Moby presents: Alien Sex Party
Directed: Paul Yates
Producer: Moby
Written: Jonee Eisen/Berlin Frankfurt Oberhausen(?)
Music: The Happiest Guys in the World(w/Satin) and Moby
Staring: Joe Smith, Tina Carlucci, Adam Sarner, Dyanna Lauren, Brian O'halloran, Fancy, more..
An art film disguised as a comedy?
I have seen Alien Sex Party at several screenings. I was at the "crew only" screening at Show World last year.(Clever- as the film was originally titled: ³Porno". The producers tell me that the name was changed because Target won't sell a film called "Porno" nor will Clear Channel advertise a film with that name. So Alien Sex Party passes the censors?) I also have a bootleg vhs along with the dvd. I say all of this because, now, I have seen the film more times than I normally would before writing a review. So, now, I have begun to think this film is oddly brilliant. Something more than a comedy- sexploitation film. I know that this is like saying I saw something deep in Meatballs or Porky's, but trust me, there is more to this film than executive producer Moby with dildos strapped to his head.
Trying to describe this plot in detail is like trying to describe the plot of Richard Lester's The Bedsitting Room (From which the film takes inspiration along with a myriad glop of other absurdist references.) The setting is "Amazing Video", an adult video store on Christmas eve. Richard lester, Monty Python, and Clerks homages are splattered about like KY jelly. Customers come into to purchase copious amounts of the afore mentioned lubricant or to peddle "kitty porn". There are dildo thieves, mad bombers and singing security guards.
There is Joe (Joe Smith) the owner of the store. Joe is to porn like a fish is to a bicycle. At first I thought that Joe was acting. Joe's character is one you either hate or love. He feels like an oddball actor then you realize, when you watch the "making of", that he may actually be this oddball. His character is very reminiscent of the character that Adam Sandler plays in Punch Drunk Love but in that film we know that Adam Sandler is acting, in this we can't be sure. It's as if Joe-real life- was the inspiration for the character in Punch Drunk Love. Joe is a unique, slightly stunted, possibly insane, but complete and enthralling individual.
Tina (Tina Carlucci) is the sexy store's manager. Tina is the most nonjudgmental, open minded, female character I've seen in film. She has managed to have every type of sexual encounter from her cousin to her dog to her brother and by the end of the film, convince me, that it is all OK. At one point, as Tina is about to perform oral sex on her cousin, she happens to mention that she had a tryst with her brother and is surprised by her cousin's ire. By that point we are with her all the way.
Did I mention that there is no pornography in this film. There are two or three brief nude shots. That's it. Moby calls the film the most wholesome porno-comedy ever. Perhaps..
Adam (Adam Sarner) plays her beleaguered ex boyfriend/cousin. who represents the typical everyman. Adam is the mirror for the viewer. His responses to the happenings of the evening would be in line with the normal audience response to the happenings on the film. He is upset at every one of Tina's revelations. This only serves to be the mirror of our thoughts had we not been enlightened by Tina's grace. Adam's biggest concern however (in a clever take on John Belushi's: Bluto) is that he missed the Bionic Man and Woman tv wedding. My favorite moment is, when questioned about the new Star Wars series, Adam looks directly into the camera and states: "George Lucas should publicly apologize, then commit suicide!" Amen brother.
Dean(Dean Haspiel) and Christian (Christian Urich) play singing and dancing "security guards". They are the drunken Statler and Waldorf constantly commenting on Joe's discomfort with all things "hornball". The film really takes off when they perform the number: "You Can Have Sex With Anything You Want". It is the bastard son of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective. (Sorry Robert Downey Jr. this is better than your pale vanity remake.) There are singing corpses, horses, rabbis and priests. The song sticks in your head and you find your self singing it at the bodega the next day. This film has four other musical numbers. So I guess this is technically a musical.
At one point three punks in their underwear storm in. They call themselves Ricco's Roughnecks(a reference to Starship Troopers?!). They are played by the punk band The Pork Guys. With director Paul Yates on bass. Moby on drums with a urine stain on his underwear. And Tarquin Katis from the hockey rock band The Zambonis. They literally break into the song "F*ck Christmas, F*ck you!"
There is a Mad Bomber (Andrew Buckland) who arrives to blow everyone to smithereens because he can't get aroused. When he explodes-no spoiler here-Pornstar Dyanna Lauren is literally born from his ashes. Her rendition of Silent Night/Feliz Navidad (with Dildo Head-Moby on guitar) is so beautiful one wonders, "why be a pornstar?".
There is a visit by an alien played by Fanny Pack's Fancy in his best Jon Waters/David Niven impression. Fancy tells me he "was not acting".
Are you still wondering what the plot is? So am I. Does it matter? No.
There is a wonderful reverse Wizard of Oz sequence where Joe, as his twin brother Harry, along with Tina and Adam go to a store to buy some pixie stix. THE STORE IS THE ACTUAL STORE FROM CLERKS! The film goes from color to black and white and we enter this store to find Brian Ohalloran reprising his role from Clerks! With the same prop sign which reads: "If you plan to shoplift, let us know." It is as if this store rests outside of the film in which it was created. This is Godardian and post modern in its referencing. It is a pop reference and esoteric at the same moment. Look at it this way, you have a film set mostly in one location, in this case a porn store. You have a limited budget. It is a comedy. Clerks would be an obvious comparison, one couldn't avoid it. An obvious dismissal too-"Oh its just Clerks in a porn store."-if the filmmakers weren't way ahead of us. They liberally reference Clerks before we have the chance to. Then they top it off by having the actual Clerks locations and actors. At that point I am forced to concede the cleverness instead of dismissing it.
Most of the secondary cast in this film are hipsters:
Dean Haspiel pens the comic Billy Dogma.
Christian Urich is Coolies Hot Box and Robert Urich's nephew
Peter Prescot from Mission of Burma shows up.
Fancy from Fanny Pack.
Toby Aimes a former MTV vj.
Tarquin Katis from the Pork Guys and the Zambonis.
Pornstar Steven St. Croix plays Santa Clause.
Leon Dewan a Happiest Guy in the World and brother of Williamsburg's own Brian Dewan plays the giant celery.
Moby has three roles.
Director Paul Yates was also the director of photography on the techno documentary Modulations.
This film is thickly, stickily layered.
Does this film have flaws, sure there are about 8 different acting styles and the song and dance routines could start about ten minutes earlier and maybe this is just a weirdo b-comedy. But I have started to see the film like Cremaster 3. The filmmakers took over a space much like Mathew Barney took over MOMA and recontextualised everything. They turned it into the set of Barney Miller. They turned it into a dance party. They turned it into a punk rock club. They subvert the paradigms of everything they present. From the theme to the subject. They even subvert their own references to CLERKS!
At the end, there is an homage to Mr. Barney's film. The filmmakers present their characters from the film in perfect "Pagentesque" form by parading all of the characters once again during the Christmas dinner. There is even a giant celery who was not even in the film but he is in a video which is an extra on the dvd. The filmmaker's world has spilled into other parts of the filmmaker's world. Other filmmaker's creations show up in the world of Alien Sex Party. We know that Moby is friends with Bjork. Was this a little reference to her significant other? I think so. This is a sneaky art film disguised as a comedy.
dutch blaine from NYC
dutchblaine@hotmail.com
The dvd has a lot of extras. There are three music videos: "Hey Hey it's the Vegetable Man" by the Happiest Guys in the World. (remember the giant celery?) One by the Pork Guys called "7inch Sellout". Obviously a self deprecating reference to Moby. And one by a funny german band, Schaumgummi, about marshmallows. There are two obvious short films and four hidden ones on the dvd. My favorite is "Shopwell on the Roof of the Yale Lock bldg." It is undercranked/fast motion where director Paul Yates and Moby play noise music as on a rooftop and then we can listen to Moby urinate. The working title for this film was "Plain Brown Wrapper" (so now that's three titles we need to remember) and the making of the film titled: "The Making of Plain Brown Wrapper" is purely absurd and hilarious.