Meet Monica Velour is important because it plays off many American anxieties about sex, which may as well be a four-letter word in American society. Sex workers are invisible in this culture, hardly seen as people, let alone portrayed as complex human beings with lives outside from their current/former job. Second chances are hard to come by and second acts are even harder to pull off—and also taboo to talk about. So here is an endearing, smart film, about Monica Velour, a former Miss January, evoking all this and more, not didactic at all, and with all the markers of a cult classic.
The basic plot: Tobe (Dustin Ingram) is lanky nerdy-but-hot tall drink of water, "unconventionally" handsome young man, who lives with his granddad and finds out his triple-X celeb obsession/idol, Monica Velour (Kim Cattrall) is performing a rare live show at a skin parlor some states over. The graduate, no other life direction in mind, answers the call to adventure by taking his grad present (a frankfurter truck) and setting off to both sell the truck and woo his woman. You know, the kind of open-ended epic in the Campbell follow-your-bliss style—a little like a spiked version of Little Miss Sunshine, another film I love. As others have noted, the opening credits sequence is *incredible* —a visual feast full of puns and double entendres—and sets a high bar that the film mostly meets.
Tobe's affection for Monica is good-natured, almost innocent; he lovingly maintains his treasure trove, scrapbooking-as-craft and vision-boarding, the purity of his intentions/ idealization of sex in general (and, to be sure, Monica in specific) beaming out of his pores. Tobe's gravitation to Monica (as opposed to "someone his own age") is almost natural given his "old" soul, which is something perhaps mainstream audiences don't understand. He's going after windmills and we root for him because it's more devotion than lust that motivates him.
Monica turns out to be more tarnished and tired than perhaps Tobe or any "real life" man would want; her starpower and earning potential is on the wane, as she inevitably marches toward her next status an aging woman in a superficial society. Monica's role is written with depth and with no apologies for her past or current life, defying stereotypes and victimhood—she's a 3-dimensional character. Cattrall plays her really well, down to facial minutiae. My favorite moment of hers has got to be when she says, rejected after applying for a conventional job at a beauty parlor, "God, you screw a few hundred guys and the whole world turns against you." That's our unforgiving culture in a nutshell, but the film doesn't sermonize or even "take sides" between Tobe and Monica: sympathetic to both, we're just being let into their star-crossed worlds for a little while.
Tobe's idea that he can "help" or "save" Monica gets its rightful interrogation; and Monica's problems with receiving help and her jadedness in the face of genuine romance are also honestly portrayed. The drama comes when Tobe cannot reify Monica any longer— when he must process what his love is, what it's really made of, and who he really is, upon meeting this real person with her own life.
I would say this is a dramedy more than a comedy, and a travelogue as well. The humor (especially if you're going off of the trailer) can seem Woody Allen-esque at times (the "sexy Star Wars" clip featured has been compared to "Sleeper"), but it's more than that, and not as imitative as that comparison would let on. It's a dry, absurdist humor, a little snarky, sort of like Juno (but perhaps lower-key). Despite the titillating appearance, the film is more about, yes, coming of age than sex or anything else.
"Coming of age" is a phrase that has different meanings to different people, but here it means learning about love. Sex is easy. Appreciating someone for who they really are—that's hard, and one of the lessons Tobe learns: not to put women up on pedestals, but not to swing to the other extreme either. Rather, the challenge, for all of us, is to continue to trust love, rather than get disillusioned by the prospect of being with someone who is not cosmetically 'perfect' or (even) conventionally 'desirable.' The heart wants what the heart wants, and we should be so lucky as to serve it. This is our life's work. Tobe's heroes' journey just involves some porn—who are we to judge?
Visually, the film is lovely as well, rich in interesting shots, pops of color, and spot-on costuming. I really love the rich material culture this film inhabits, its use of "high" and "low" art alike, to get us (in a very subtle way) to question whether pornography can't be artistic as well—if it can't activate agape as well as eros.
So, if you can relax (or look past) our culture's hang-ups about sex, this is a fine little fable about relating to people, seeing them for who they are (and not who you want them to be), and growing into yourself. I want to emphasize that the film is not smutty or vulgar, but very-lighthearted—the only time I cringed was when Pop- pop (Brian Dennehy) dipped his boiled egg in a shot of Pepto-Bismol— and ate it. That was disgusting.
Sex is a healthy, natural, wonderful, and fun thing, and we should embrace it there's just not enough sex-positive media out there, let alone any film that takes on "nontraditional" love in a sincere, open-minded, sweet and smart way.
"Sex" is a three-letter word. Meet Monica Velour is a gem.
Protip- Get the DVD as the commentary is very interesting, as are the deleted scenes. And because you'll want to slow down those opening credits.
The basic plot: Tobe (Dustin Ingram) is lanky nerdy-but-hot tall drink of water, "unconventionally" handsome young man, who lives with his granddad and finds out his triple-X celeb obsession/idol, Monica Velour (Kim Cattrall) is performing a rare live show at a skin parlor some states over. The graduate, no other life direction in mind, answers the call to adventure by taking his grad present (a frankfurter truck) and setting off to both sell the truck and woo his woman. You know, the kind of open-ended epic in the Campbell follow-your-bliss style—a little like a spiked version of Little Miss Sunshine, another film I love. As others have noted, the opening credits sequence is *incredible* —a visual feast full of puns and double entendres—and sets a high bar that the film mostly meets.
Tobe's affection for Monica is good-natured, almost innocent; he lovingly maintains his treasure trove, scrapbooking-as-craft and vision-boarding, the purity of his intentions/ idealization of sex in general (and, to be sure, Monica in specific) beaming out of his pores. Tobe's gravitation to Monica (as opposed to "someone his own age") is almost natural given his "old" soul, which is something perhaps mainstream audiences don't understand. He's going after windmills and we root for him because it's more devotion than lust that motivates him.
Monica turns out to be more tarnished and tired than perhaps Tobe or any "real life" man would want; her starpower and earning potential is on the wane, as she inevitably marches toward her next status an aging woman in a superficial society. Monica's role is written with depth and with no apologies for her past or current life, defying stereotypes and victimhood—she's a 3-dimensional character. Cattrall plays her really well, down to facial minutiae. My favorite moment of hers has got to be when she says, rejected after applying for a conventional job at a beauty parlor, "God, you screw a few hundred guys and the whole world turns against you." That's our unforgiving culture in a nutshell, but the film doesn't sermonize or even "take sides" between Tobe and Monica: sympathetic to both, we're just being let into their star-crossed worlds for a little while.
Tobe's idea that he can "help" or "save" Monica gets its rightful interrogation; and Monica's problems with receiving help and her jadedness in the face of genuine romance are also honestly portrayed. The drama comes when Tobe cannot reify Monica any longer— when he must process what his love is, what it's really made of, and who he really is, upon meeting this real person with her own life.
I would say this is a dramedy more than a comedy, and a travelogue as well. The humor (especially if you're going off of the trailer) can seem Woody Allen-esque at times (the "sexy Star Wars" clip featured has been compared to "Sleeper"), but it's more than that, and not as imitative as that comparison would let on. It's a dry, absurdist humor, a little snarky, sort of like Juno (but perhaps lower-key). Despite the titillating appearance, the film is more about, yes, coming of age than sex or anything else.
"Coming of age" is a phrase that has different meanings to different people, but here it means learning about love. Sex is easy. Appreciating someone for who they really are—that's hard, and one of the lessons Tobe learns: not to put women up on pedestals, but not to swing to the other extreme either. Rather, the challenge, for all of us, is to continue to trust love, rather than get disillusioned by the prospect of being with someone who is not cosmetically 'perfect' or (even) conventionally 'desirable.' The heart wants what the heart wants, and we should be so lucky as to serve it. This is our life's work. Tobe's heroes' journey just involves some porn—who are we to judge?
Visually, the film is lovely as well, rich in interesting shots, pops of color, and spot-on costuming. I really love the rich material culture this film inhabits, its use of "high" and "low" art alike, to get us (in a very subtle way) to question whether pornography can't be artistic as well—if it can't activate agape as well as eros.
So, if you can relax (or look past) our culture's hang-ups about sex, this is a fine little fable about relating to people, seeing them for who they are (and not who you want them to be), and growing into yourself. I want to emphasize that the film is not smutty or vulgar, but very-lighthearted—the only time I cringed was when Pop- pop (Brian Dennehy) dipped his boiled egg in a shot of Pepto-Bismol— and ate it. That was disgusting.
Sex is a healthy, natural, wonderful, and fun thing, and we should embrace it there's just not enough sex-positive media out there, let alone any film that takes on "nontraditional" love in a sincere, open-minded, sweet and smart way.
"Sex" is a three-letter word. Meet Monica Velour is a gem.
Protip- Get the DVD as the commentary is very interesting, as are the deleted scenes. And because you'll want to slow down those opening credits.