Review of “Grindhouse” and “The Hoax”

Here’s what going to the movies used to be like back in the day. Way back in the day. Like when I was a tyke. Around noon on Saturday, my mother would drop me off at the Bard or Uptown or Airway. She give me 30¢ — 20¢ to get in, 10¢ for popcorn. Then she’d go play cards with her friends.

My buddy Bruce and I would terrorize the joint for an hour until the cartoons started. There would be a serial. And a double feature.

The first time I remember my parents going out to the movies, I asked them what they were going to see? When they gave me the title of only one movie, I was kind of stunned. Why would you pay to go to the movies and see only one? What a waste, I thought.

Of course, the double feature syndrome continued on when we were old enough for the drive in. No need to get into what a Friday night at the Kenwood or Twilite was like. Especially after we got our licenses and scored a date with a gal who was “hot” or “put out.” Then there were the halcyon days — getting stoned with friends and catching a double bill of cannibal movies featuring the Bikini Babes.

Those are the daze that Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino have tried to bring back with their crazed double bill feature titled “Grindhouse.” It’s a twofor. Plus fake previews and an ad for the funky Mexican food place next door.

The movies feature Rose McGowan, which, when you think of it, is a pretty inspired choice. After all, she used to be Marilyn Manson’s girlfriend. Once she showed up with him at some red carpet event, wearing little but a few strands of dental floss.
In Rodriguez’s pus-virus-takes-over-the-town opener, McGowan plays Cherry Darling. She loses her leg to the virus. Her boyfriend replaces it with a machine gun.

Which is inspired schtick. And about the best part of that segment. (Okay there’s one more brilliant observation. There are brothers in the flick. One is the asshole town sheriff. The other owns the town barbecue joint, in a building the nasty brother owns. When they are dying of the virus, one finally gives up his secret BBQ recipe, but only after the other promises he’ll take it to his grave.) Rodriguez’s portion is essentially a caricature, which induces a faint smile, but little else.

Tarantino is obviously the master of this genre, which, truth be told, appeals mostly to boys of any age still in touch with their adolescence. His feature is called “Death Proof.” In it, Kurt Russell plays a stunt man with a penchant for killing hot young babes with his car. No explanation for this character flaw is offered. Why bother? So, you get your gore and car chase and hot gals who can karate kick a bad dude into the next county.

Tarantino is a master of the set up. He patiently leads the viewer into the maelstrom. He also can work some dialog. Nobody has an ear for the vernacular like this former video store clerk. So, as usual, there are long scenes of interesting, but essentially inane, chatter. It’s much chitchat about nothing, but always engaging. The action then ensues.

Tarantino is also a master of the visuals. Some of his camera angles and tracking shots are extraordinary. His films are always worth a look.

Much ado has been made about “Grindhouse.” How it is a proclamation of the state of the movie business, and how there needs to be more vibrancy. Maybe so. I’m not willing to go there. In the end, this double feature is an extended grin, long on nostalgia, short on substance. But certainly more than mildly entertaining.

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Clifford Irving was a second tier writer with lots of chutzpah. In the 70’s he tried to work a publishing scam where he claimed to have written the authorized biography of reclusive billionaire, Howard Hughes. With Hughes’ cooperation, he claimed. It was a fake. A gloriously grand fake, but a total hoax nonetheless.

“The Hoax,” featuring an ever improving Richard Gere as Irving, is the story of that failed real-life chicanery.

This is an entertaining tale of how greed engenders gullibility. And how delusional one can get when they start to believe their own fabrications. Alfred Molina, Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden, Julia Delpy and Stanley Tucci fill out the righteous cast.

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