The Fluffer

A gay porn movie that cannot rise to the occasion is no more appetising than a limp biscuit. Boogie Nights satirised the industry and became a mainstream hit. The Fluffer looks like it wants to go all the way, but doesn't. Which is the phony?

Sean (Michael Cunio) is a young shy kid, who comes to Hollywood to be a cameraman. He ends up working for an independent porn studio, where he falls under the spell of their star, Johnny Rebel (Scott Gurney) - aka Mickey.

Sean calls himself bisexual, but hasn't a clue, really. Women don't turn him on and men scare him. He has a crush on Mickey and tries to hide it, which means he agonises in isolation.

Mickey does the gay films for money. He is straight, which confuses the issue. His girlfriend is a lap dancer, called Babylon, who becomes pregnant. He freaks out, takes drugs and runs away for a week.

The film cannot make up its mind whether to focus on Sean's rites-of-passage, or Mickey's decline and fall. In the end it settles for both. Secretly, you sense that it wants to go hard core.

It doesn't. It stays gauche.