TLA Video - The Fluffer (Wash West & Richard Glazer - 2001)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245115/

2001, 95 min

Country: US 

Studio : TLA Releasing 

   Cast: Scott Gurney, 
	 Michael Cunio, 
	 Roxanne Day, 
	 Debbie Harry, 
         Guinevere Turner, 
         Cole Tucker, 
         Robert Walden, 
         Chi Chi LaRue 

Director:  Wash West, Richard Glatzer 

Screenwriter:  Wash West 

Synopsis 

2002 GayVN Winner: Best Alternative Release

	West and Glatzer's The Fluffer is a terrific, gripping and
	sexy fictional (non-hardcore) drama that manages to both
	expose the nasty underbelly of the gay porn industry and show
	its allure.

THE FLUFFER SYNOPSIS:

	The Story centers on Johnny Rebel, a porn star with a paradox.
	Although he is a hot-blooded heterosexual male, Johnny makes
	his living as a gay porno star. The reason: money.

	Sean McGinnis is young, naive, adventurous, and pure. Moving
	to L.A. to pursue a career in movies, he becomes diverted to
	working for Hollywood's illegitimate stepchild -- the porno
	industry. The reason: Johnny Rebel.

	Julie Disponzio, also known as Babylon, is the most fiery of
	the dancers at the strip club, Leggs. She and Johnny have been
	in a relationship for three years. She's hard as nails,
	willful and charismatic, and can play power games at Johnny's
	level, but ultimately she's at a disadvantage. The reason: She
	loves him.

	Sean gets a job as a cameraman, hoping to be near his porn
	idol. The first day on the set, he strikes a curious
	connection and steps beyond the bounds of his job to become
	Rebel's fluffer.

	While Sean fixates on the icon Johnny Rebel, Babylon deals
	with his day to day reality. Johnny just focuses on himself.
	The sex industry provides the setting for the triangle,
	Babylon navigating her prurient clients while Sean negotiates
	the inhabitants of the porno underworld. Both submit to, yet
	struggle with, the role of fluffer. Both cling ferociously to
	their self-respect as they go down on their knees. Both have
	to reckon with their deepest desires while engaging in a
	precarious balancing act.

	Then, Johnny Rebel starts to implode...

Review

	Sean McGinnis (Cunio) has been renting Hollywood classics and
	by error gets Citizen Cum instead of Citizen Kane. So starts a
	tale of sexual obsession that changes the course of Sean's
	life. The star of Citizen Cum is Johnny Rebel (Gurney) a hot
	"gay for pay" porn star with numerous drug, relationship and
	stability problems. Sean becomes so smitten with Johnny that
	he applies for work at "Men of Janus" (Johnny's contract
	studio).

	Sean gets a job on the set of Johnny's next film and goes
	beyond camerawork to perform a job that most gay men would pay
	to do. He becomes a fluffer who performs oral sex so that the
	porn performer is hard on camera.

	After servicing him, Sean becomes even more enamored with
	Johnny whose life is spiraling out of control. Johnny's
	girlfriend Babylon locks him out of the house and his drug use
	is growing exponentially. There is some nasty violence and the
	two guys go on a journey that will change the course of their
	lives. This non-sexually explicit, but very sexy, tale takes
	Sean and Johnny to places where only the truly obsessed would
	dare go!

Director Wash West's first non-adult film is a well-told tale of
obsession that manages to illustrate the allure of the porn business
while telling a difficult tale of obsession.

-Scott Cranin

Some additional notes and quotes:

	"The Max Ophuls masterpiece Letter From an Unknown Woman
	suggests in its very title the self-abnegation of the fluffer.
	Midnight Cowboy documents Ratso RizzoÆs selfless idolatry of
	Joe Buck, which remains unconsummated, as all fluffer love
	affairs must. Yet it was Rebel Without a Cause which, in its
	triangular relationship among a girl, a gay man, and a
	beautiful boy who swings both ways, gave us the template for
	the central triangle of the movie. In all three of these
	movies, the classic fluffer figure dies. Clearly there was
	room for an update."

	-From an interview with co-directors Richard Glatzer and Wash
	West

	"A wry, intelligent look at narcissism and desire in our
	society."

	-Out Magazine

THE FLUFFER BREAKS RECORDS

	The Fluffer enjoyed a record-breaking US premiere run at The
	Quad Cinema in New York, followed by nationwide staged
	release. Press reviews were highly enthusiastic across the
	nation.

USA PREMIERE IN SILVERLAKE FILM FESTIVAL

	The USA premiere of The Fluffer was before a sold out,
	standing room only crowd at a screening in conjunction with
	the Silverlake Film Festival.

FLUFFER IN TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL

	The Fluffer North American Premiere packed houses at the
	prestigious Toronto International Film Festival.

	An unusually high percentage (75%) of the audience stayed for
	Q&A with the directors.

	Everyone from teenage coeds to grandmothers to Toronto
	scenesters responded to the film, and the directors were
	congratulated by strangers on the streets!

		The directors e-mailed this report to the team:

		"The screening was beyond ideal. The crowd picked up
		every nuance. We could tell within the first minute
		that they were loving the movie. They laughed at the
		funny parts and you could hear a pin drop during the
		serious moments. Some people were crying at the end.
		Afterwards, there were several rounds of applause."

FLUFFER IN BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL

	The Fluffer was an official selection of the 51st
	Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Berlin Film Festival).
	The Berlin Film Festival is one of the most prestigious in the
	world, and everyone involved in the project is delighted.
	Directors Richard Glatzer and Wash West as well as stars
	Roxanne Day attended, and three screenings were packed. The
	crowd loved the film and broke out laughing when Johnny Rebel
	commented that he "looked German."

FLUFFER USA DISTRIBUTION DEAL

	The Fluffer was distributed in the US by First Run Features
	and TLA Releasing. TLA President Ray Murray states that, "The
	Fluffer is a truly remarkable film that has received
	deservedly enthusiastic responses in Europe and is already
	generating palpable excitement here in the States. I am
	pleased that TLA Releasing and First Run Features are the ones
	to present it to American audiences." First Run's Vice
	President Marc Mauceri adds, "this innovative partnership,
	which combines First Run's theatrical network and TLA's
	internet presence, guarantees that The Fluffer will receive
	the national attention it richly deserves."

WORLD DISTRIBUTION

	Media Luna Entertainment is World Sales Agent for The Fluffer.