RARA-AVIS: Re: "Frisk" movie, Dennis Cooper

From: Chris Schneider ( chrisaschneider@earthlink.net)
Date: 27 Jun 2003


> on 6/27/03 10:40 AM, Mark Sullivan at DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net wrote:
>
> [...] Also, imdb showed a movie was made of Frisk. Has anyone seen it?
> I can't imagine it getting less than an NC-7 if it is even close to
> faithful to the book.
> --

   The word-of-mouth for the "Frisk" movie is consistently bad and, much as I'd like it to be wrong, pretty convincing. Here's a snippet from Tom Charity capsule review in Time Out:

                               "[Todd Verow]'s first film as director, (from
                    a cult novel by Dennis Cooper) boasts occasional bursts
                    of flashy editing, lousy performances (exception: Parker
                    Posey in a ten-minute cameo as a fag hag only too happy
                    to participate in a spot of orgiastic murder), and a
                    sour sensibility quite in keeping with the characters."

    That "first film as a director" would seem to be the crucial bit. When dealing with subject matter that is, in essence, unfilmable, you want a director who knows what he or she is doing -- cf. Mary Harron and "American Psycho." Prior to "Frisk," Verow was known primarily as a cinematorgapher for Gregg ("Totally F***ed Up," "The Living End") Araki. Now if Araki himself had been the director...
     The book of "Frisk" is very much worth reading, by the way. I'm a Cooper fan -- which is to say that I find him, in equal parts, horrifying and fascinating and off-putting and endearing. Even if he does force me to trot out the old joke about the working title for [insert name of latest novel] being "Kids, Don't Try This At Home."

                                                       c.
    

    

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