Storyline

Tony Hall is a student filmmaker. He is hypercritical about everything including his own work, even his own award winning experimental film, with most of his classmates recognizing that he is probably the most talented among them despite many of them not understanding his work. As with most student filmmakers, he relies on his friends - fellow classmates - in front of and behind the camera, those classmates including his current girlfriend, actress Melisse. Tony's arrogant my way or the highway places him at odds with some, especially one of the school's professors, Will Ames, who nonetheless does his job in providing the support that Tony may need to do his schoolwork and promote the work of the school's talent. Will does try to warn Melisse about the dangers of dating Tony, she and Will who used to date themselves. Tony's attitude also places him in the dichotomy of wanting that support but not wanting any of the strings that may go along with it. While Tony potentially may get some work at a studio through word of mouth of his film and on recommendation by Will, Tony embarks on a new project that is more process oriented than structured as he plans to cobble together disconnected footage he finds interesting. In that process, he begins to use what are largely considered unethical practices of filming real life situations without consent, and manipulating real life for his own purposes. The question then becomes if it gets to the point where, despite his talent, he may alienate all those around him upon who he still needs to rely.—Huggo

Plot Keywords

female nudity, bare breasts, womanizer, gay character, telephone booth, face slap, female rear nudity, female removes her clothes, bikini, filmmaking, hourglass, binoculars, lifeguard, sunbathing, apartment, 1970s, desert, beach, running on the beach, movie projector

Short Review

I'm a sucker for movies like this. From the late '60's until the release of "Jaws", there were literally hundreds of cheap movies released by the nearly bankrupt major studios that were long on cinematography, short on plot and had surprising actors and soundtracks. The actors in this mess include Robert Forster, currently of the TV show "Heroes", Sondra Locke, the ex-paramour of Clint Eastwood, Ken Kercheval from "Dallas", Sam Waterston of "Law And Order" and longtime character actor Carmen Argenziano. The soundtrack features two songs by '70's mellow rockers Bread. The title song, "Cover Me Babe", features lyrics by a very young Randy Newman (I'd bet any amount of money that he doesn't remember this part of his catalog).The "short on plot" thing is all too apparent with this film. Forster plays a film student trying to film reality in all its horrid glory, which includes the filming of people having sex in a car, transvestites, derelicts telling their life stories, prostitutes pleasuring themselves and people jumping to their death off of buildings. There are some scenes of the ocean in the opening and closing credits and some outdoor shooting in one sequence. The rest of the movie is mostly forgettable, but as I said, I love schlock like this. Currently in light rotation on the Fox Movie Channel at about 3 in the morning, right where it belongs.

Trailer

Streaming Service

1. Amazon Video : Rent from $1.99, Or $0.00 with a Prime membership