Norman Mailer's REFLECTING SKIN

MAIDSTONE (1970) Norman Mailer – literary icon or abject asshole? In this ahead-of-its-time “mockumentary,” Mailer stars as Norman Kingsley a porno director poised to become the next president of the United States. He repairs to an isolated English country estate to helm his latest epic, and bone down on some pretty models in the process. Mailer and company then slips the cast and crew with acid, and the flick flails about like an epileptic octopus with jump cuts and nonsensical sequences. Just when the viewer has reached past the breaking point with Mailer, a very young and crazed Rip Torn gets into a fight with him and bites Mailer’s ear for real and there’s blood all over the place … we knew we liked that guy for some reason!

HARDBODIES (1984) Three troll-like middle-aged men enlist the services of a beach bum in order to score with all the bikini babes on the West Coast. Renting out a plush beachside pad, the men make their move and the girls fall into the groove. This pic features a happening 1980’s rock score along with the expected army of boobs, butts and feathered hair on the beach, on the boardwalk and in the bedroom. Will true love win out in the end? I dunno. Whenever I go to the beach, I’m harassed by homeless bums, screaming families with kids, defecating dogs and obese people in thongs. The Magic of Hollywood …

THE REFLECTING SKIN (1990) Seth Dove is a little boy growing up in rural America during the 1950’s a place of almost unimaginable horror … His mother is an abusive shrew, his father is a closeted homosexual and his brother (Viggo Mortensen before LORD OF THE RINGS) returns from the military after witnessing atomic bomb tests in the Pacific. As bro suffers radiation sickness, Seth suspects his next-door neighbor (Lindsey Duncan) is a vampire out to drain the life from him! All the while, a sinister black Cadillac cruises the plains in search of young victims. Luckily, he finds an aborted fetus in a barn to spill his troubles to. Agonizing art house horror from the director of THE PASSION DARKLY NOON.

NAUGHTY COEDS (1974, SCHULMÄDCHEN-REPORT 8: WAS ELTERN NIE ERFAHREN DÜRFEN) Those German schoolgirls are at it again -- they frolic in the countryside in micro-miniskirts, platform boots or frequently nothing at all. These frisky frauleins relate episodes from their romantic histories while on a field trip (although the gals in the framing device sometimes don't match the ones in the flashbacks -- natch!). They include one girls' affair with a much older rich man, the hilarious steps some students take to thaw out a frigid schoolmarm and many, many more! Gorgeous gals and you gotta love that swinging Gert Wilden musical score --