Welcome to the holidaze weekend, party-hearty-ers. Hope you're out having fun in the sun ... while I toil away here in my dark, den of depravity, making sure you have a fresh helping of hardboiled pulp/noir every day. So crack open a cold one, put your feet up, and take thrill ride with me, straight to hell ...Screened a lovely, dark little number last night -- Nic Cage, in 8MM. Holy shit. What a DARK film. All about some rich dude who hires a porn director to shoot a snuff film. Nic takes a dark on the dark side in the sleazy underbelly of Hollywood, assisted by sex shoppe worker Joaquen Pheonex ... wonderfully perverted in vinyl. DARK SHIT, but good. Not for the faint of heart.
Gotta special treat for you. We'll get back to Wilshire Boulevard tomorrow ... but today, a fresh, new scene from Little Girl Blue. Now -- those of you who have followed the story so far have already met our young wannabe stripper, fresh of the boat from the Midwest, new to LA. Her name was Aerin ... but now it's Blue. Deal with it. That's part of the fun of being a writer. You can play God.
And on the seventh day, Blue hired the services of private eye Carrie Love ...
***
INT. FANTASY ISLAND STRIP CLUB - NIGHT
Blue sits at far end of the bar with Carrie.
They sip bottles of beer.
BLUE
I’m so embarrassed.
CARRIE
Don’t be. You were great.
(beat)
Minor detail.
BLUE
But I fucking FELL.
CARRIE
Adds to your charm.
They’re gonna offer you a job.
Just you wait.
Pause.
BLUE
So -- you’re a private detective.
CARRIE
I am. But keep it under your hat.
I come here to do a Garbo.
(pulls out her card)
Here. Just in case --
BLUE
(takes it, reads)
‘Fast, Cheap & Out of Control?’
CARRIE
Marketing gimmick.
(takes a swig)
And it gives Joe Average a hard-on.
BLUE
How much do you charge?
CARRIE
Too much.
(beat)
Are you in some kind of trouble?
BLUE
It’s -- about my sister.
CARRIE
Is she in trouble?
Pause.
BLUE
She -- died.
CARRIE
I’m sorry.
(beat)
What happened?
Blue looks around.
Makes sure no one is listening.
BLUE
They said she committed suicide.
But that’s not true.
She’d never do that. Never.
Jonna would NEVER do that.
No way.
(looks again)
She was a dancer here.
Jonna was trying to make it as an actress,
said this was just temporary,
that the money was great,
the people were nice,
and that she was making some great contacts.
(sips her beer)
She wrote me once a week.
Then the letters stopped.
My parents were contacted by the police,
they said she’d killed herself.
(angry)
But she DIDN’T. I KNOW she didn’t.
(hisses)
Someone KILLED her.
Pause.
CARRIE
I’ll do it.
BLUE
But you said you were too expen --
CARRIE
I am. But I made a bundle on my last case.
Time for me to pay it forward.
You know, karma.
(smiles)
Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap.
I actually liked "8MM," even though Andrew Kevin Walker basically retold Paul Schrader's "Hardcore" without giving him any credit (that I'm aware of). It's one of the few Schmacher films that I can say that I enjoyed all the way and it was the rare film in his career in which he didn't try to go over the top.
ReplyDeleteI think we're in the minority but I really like 8MM to.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I think Schumacher showed remarkable restraint (as did Cage). As someone who's been a traveller in the underground sex scene, found the potrayal of that world uncannily acurate. Makes me wonder what Schumacher into ...
ReplyDelete