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Nudity Required
review by KJ
Doughton, 20 June 2003
Seattle International Film Festival
2003
Todd
(Keith Andreen) and Oded (Roberto Raad) are two pathetic schmucks
wasting away in Bremerton, Washington, a naval port town often
referred to by nearby Seattle residents as "The armpit of the
Puget Sound area." Full of rusty shipyards and sleazy, dirtbag
taverns, this dead-end destination offers few options for these
depressed twenty-somethings.
Working
at the Bowl-o-Rama, Bremerton’s top cultural choice for
sophisticated diversions, both barely-employed ball-shiners sit
behind a counter handing out bowling shoes and chatting up Joey
(Whitney Leigh, who also co-wrote and co-produced Nudity
Required), a spunky, rabid chipmunk of a waitress. Todd is a
sullen blonde locked in his own self-righteous funk, having been
recently dumped by an upwardly mobile squeeze shacking up with a
film student in LA Oded, on the other hand, is a greasy, sex-crazed
motormouth whose future plans for a livelihood involve midget porn
sites. Coupled together, these two sad schlemiels resemble a
slightly more coherent Lenny and Squiggy.
Directed
by one-time Bremerton resident Steven Boe, Nudity
Required concentrates on the efforts of this less-than-dynamic
duo to get laid. In a more lighthearted spin on Takashi Miike’s
brutal Audition, they
conjure up a plot to interview aspiring area actresses for an
"erotic thriller." We’re not talking Ron Jeremy-styled
porno, but rather, the silly, topless hybrid found in
straight-to-video exploitation outings.
Northwest
viewers will get a kick out of the many Seattle-area sights that
register on Boe’s camera. Although much of Nudity
Required was filmed in LA, there’s a lengthy sequence in which
the fledgling filmmakers travel to Space Needle City in search of
financing. Meanwhile, the sordid, white trash vibe of trailer-town,
bowling alley culture is conveyed with the knowing eye of someone
who’s been there, done that.
The
crackling dialogue from Nudity
Required brings to mind Kevin Smith, as these frustrated young
townies plot their escape to abundant fame, fortune, and nookie.
Joey gets most of the good lines – when she’s told that a family
of incoming bowlers are asking for her assistance, the cynical
squirt harps, "They probably want to reserve this place for a
wedding."
Nudity
Required
ultimately explodes into a garish, anything-goes freak show, as Roe
tosses in everything but the kitchen sink. In an effort to produce
"Hollywood Chicks," their tawdry piece de resistance, Todd
and Oded stumble across mammoth, muscular love interest Darla
(played by hulking female bodybuilder Jayne Tryka, from Scary
Movie), and a parade of eccentric movie hopefuls. A trio of true
"Hollywood Chicks" (triplets Jaclyn, Erica, and Nicole
Dahm) emerge, with platinum hair and Playboy looks, while Mafia men
and a sugar-craving spazz named Speed Racer (Steve Gibbons) round
out the massive cast.
Nudity
Required
sets out to be enjoyable fluff, and that’s exactly what it
delivers. There are a number of inspired comic moments, starting
with the film’s opening credits. Simulating an online web surfer
entering names to a search engine window, the director types in his
credit as "Steven Spielb…," before deleting the wishful
identity and replacing it with "Steven Boe."
The
actors accomplish their missions, for the most part. Andreen is a
bit stiff as the broken-hearted Todd, but Roberta Raad plays his
oily, wannabe flimflam man with annoying glee. As the feisty,
potty-mouthed Joey, Whitney Leigh steals the film. Sizing up a
well-endowed male actor equipped with the attributes of Dirk
Diggler, she steals Roy Scheider’s classic line from Jaws, exclaiming, "We’re gonna need a bigger boat."
Nudity
Required
is an amusing, colorful way to spend a couple of hours.
Unfortunately for fans of flesh, the film actually has very little
disrobing. For potent one-liners and a fun send-up of the cheesy
exploitation genre, however, viewers could do a lot worse.
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