Just saw this film at the Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, NC. Stayed out late for the midnight showing, and it was worth it! Could be destined to become a cult classic! It was fast, funny, shocking, vulgar, endlessly inventive, and engaging. I loved it! The film is a documentary about the struggles of Mark Thomas, who is a drag queen who goes by the name of Babs Johnson, and his difficulty in getting his performance off the ground at a gay bar in Raleigh, NC. The opening sequence was dazzling. You just didn't know where to look! The music by The Genitorturers is so driving and powerful that it just commands attention. Karner, who also shot and edited the film, does an incredible job of preparing you for what is in store. After a clown-faced MC introduces Babs, two Nazi-esquire, leather-clad strippers drag a young girl on stage and begin beating her with flashlights. It is shot in an eerie and grainy black and white until Babs enters, and then the film jumps into color. Words that I can't even mention here are flashed up on the screen and Babs Johnson puts on a metallic apparatus, a dildo, if you will, and takes some sort of saw and cuts at the edge of it, causing massive sparks to blast forward at the audience. This is the incredible opening to Nick Karner's wild film.
The film immediately jumps to the first day of rehearsal where Thomas is preparing his cast for the performance. They are a rag-tag group made up of preps, Goths, metal heads, strippers, druggies, and freaks.
One of the things that is truly unique about this film is the way Karner has put it together. He is defying chronological order here, showing sequences from the show throughout the film, breaking in between performance pieces to interview Thomas and the cast or explore the ways the film is being censored and protested. There is a knockout scene where Karner is told to stop filming as Thomas and an employee of the bar are about to exchange words, but Karner continues filming as the two argue. I held my breath this entire scene. Another memorable moment is when Thomas recounts creating a stage version of Mommie Dearest and had to have the bar evacuated after throwing talcum powder all over the place and the bar was not well ventilated.
Karner's camera work is spot-on. He seems to be restrained enough to simply film people talking and not move his camera much, making the subjects the most important aspect of the film, but during the two montage's the film contains, he proves that he is a visual stylist. His use of smooth and lengthy tracking shots is assured impressive, while he spins, rotates, and pushes the camera into objects and people, reminding me of a young Scorsese.
The film ends with a truly ingenious editing bonanza. Karner has been showing the performance moments in their entirety throughout the film, so it seemed he wanted to end the film a little differently. Rather than simply show the final performance, he inter cuts rehearsal footage and grainy 8mm footage with his clear 16mm shots to create an astonishing spectacle. I thought it was a brilliant capper to a great film. Could really be the beginning of an important career for a young film director.