CHRISTIAN SLATER GARRETT CLAYTON KEEGAN ALLE JAMES FRANCO.
ALSO WITH ALICIA SILVERSTONE AND MOLLY RINGWALD
appearing in just two short scenes) about his swell
new internship. He’s a quick study whose own directorial career “King Cobra” will parody in its cheeky
epilogue — though Kelly takes greater amusement
in recreating the low-grade production values of early-aughts gay porn, with their pro-forma scripting
and stiff acting, as if the exploitation movie that surrounds them is operating on a much higher plane.
As “I Am Michael” demonstrated, the director
likes to provoke his audience, this time serving up
as much skin and sex as he can manage without
the film itself being classified as porn — although
for that to be the case, it would have to be arousing. But the only sexy thing about “King Cobra” is its
many neon-lit driving scenes, which suggest “Scorpio Rising,” as reimagined by Nicolas Winding Refn.
While Stephen fetishizes his sports cars, that’s nothing compared to D-grade rivals the Viper Boyz: business-minded Joe (Franco) and his otherwise-gifted
boyfriend/muse Harlow (Keegan Allen), who dreams
of making a porno called “The Fast and the Curious.”
When Lockhart finally works up the courage
to quit Cobra — which leaves a humiliated Stephen
having to explain himself to a weirdly cast Molly
Ringwald (as Slater’s onscreen sister) — no one in
the “industry” will take him. That is, until the Viper
Boyz strike, attempting to impress him over an extravagant sushi dinner so uncomfortable, one wonders whether a smarmy producer might have tried
the same thing on Franco.
While Clayton plays it earnest, the movie lapses into outright caricature whenever Franco’s character appears, making it clear that this latest nutcase
is just another tongue-in-cheek invention, as far removed from his true self as the Alien he played in
“Spring Breakers.” Still, to the extent that Franco’s
recent filmography has teased audiences’ obsession
with his offscreen leanings — whether it was making
out with Michael Shannon in “The Broken Tower” or
pretend-outing Eminem in “The Interview” — “King
Cobra” goes all the way, cutting from a campy car
wash to the film’s most explicit sex scene, performed
for the benefit of no camera but Kelly’s. Consider it
another sacrifice for his art.
King Cobra opens in select theatres
October 21st, 2016.
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