The Fluffer (2001)

'The Fluffer' (2001) intertwines the lives of three very different characters: Mikey (Scott Gurney), Julie (Roxanne Day) and Sean (Michael Cunio). Mikey (a.k.a. Johnny Rebel) is a star in the gay porn industry, yet claims to be heterosexual. He is in a romantic relationship with Julie, an erotic dancer who wants to get her life straight while struggling with Mikey's infidelity, drug addiction and lack of responsibility. Sean, a self-proclaimed bisexual, is in total awe of Mikey and decides to join the porn industry because of him. He starts out as a cameraman yet soon finds himself as Mikey's personal fluffer, meaning he 'helps out' when the pornstar cannot get an erection.What makes this movie interesting is the dynamics between these three characters, as all of them are shadowed by some form of personal tragedy. Perhaps the most obvious one is Mikey. He has a physique enviable even by Greek gods, and also has a gorgeous girlfriend with whom they truly love each other. However, he is not only unable to stay sober or loyal, he is living an outrageous lie. He finds success in acting as a gay pornstar yet openly yearns after females. He is infatuated with people being infatuated with him, no matter what their gender may be. For him having sex with men is just a job like any other. He is well aware of his bodily gifts and takes advantage of it to manipulate his environment. However, to me he did not seem entirely as a negative character. I found his fate truly sad, since he could have so easily had it all; the family, a change in life, and yet he chose to throw it all away. I could not dislike him, because to me he seemed like an eternally lonely person who got lost in a world where he is viewed as a piece of meat.Sean is a smarter character. He is well aware of just how impossible it is to fulfill his desire to be with Mikey. He is quite literally on his knees before his idol, and lets Mikey take full advantage of him. Sean's tragedy is his inability to break free from the spell Mikey's beauty has cast upon him. He knows he is being used, yet does not do a thing against it. He lives for those occasional moments when he matters to his object of desire, which sadly enough has nothing to do with Sean. He only matters to Mikey when Mikey needs something; an erection, money or a getaway. This relationship is perfectly visualized in Sean's dream when he is watching Mikey from behind the mirror and in reality Mikey is kissing his own image when Sean leans in. Sean is nothing more than a fluffer, temporarily satisfying the ego of his idol.Julie is a girl who also works on the surface of the sex industry, though is not as consumed by it as Mikey. She simply is fed up by Mikey's inability to be there for her, and it takes an abortion for her to literally lock him out of her life and move on, possibly towards a brighter future. She finally understands that it is not enough to have a sex god as a boyfriend. Her tragedy is the loss of her unborn child, and the loss of the man she loves… However the latter bit is not necessarily a negative issue in the long term. She is a sympathetic character who finally is strong enough to break the devil's cycle.Directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland did a good job at portraying how the fates of these three characters first meet, then part. While Julie and Sean both find a painful but efficient way to drag themselves out of their constant source of unhappiness, Mikey's future looks the most bleak. He is clearly not heading towards any positive change, he is merely continuing the wrong path he decided to initially take.Overall the movie was certainly unusual and had no lack in some explicit sex scenes. Though I will not count this among my favorites, it did a great job at showing the terrible consequences of denial and lies, as well as how easily the sex industry can lead to drug addiction and burnouts. The most memorable line for me was when Sam, the main cameraman says to Sean: "We're not talking about sex here, this is pornography." That says it all. Sex and pornography do not go hand in hand, just as well as adoration and appreciation (or love and happiness if you will) are not reciprocals of one another either. It paints a crude, raw picture of one form of reality.

In relation to an earlier post mentioning the time of 10.30 being focused on throughout the movie, I'd like to correct this by saying that the clocks all showed the time to be approximately 9.30!!! Unfortunately the significance of this time is vague. Onto the actual movie though, I thought the plot was rather dim and boring with a few one liners thrown in for good measure. Quite a few actors in the film are recognizable from all sources..TV, film etc. The cute boys are aplenty in the film but it's ironic that since this is a movie about the (porn) movie industry, you'd be forgiven for thinking any of them could actually ACT!

"The Fluffer" boasts some moments of really good acting and some quality comedic & dramatic scenes throughout it's run. However, as a heterosexual male, this movie also had plenty of moments that left me feeling uncomfortable, and some others that were pretty outlandish.Not to familiar with movies in this genre, I thought I would give this one a go. It was worth watching, but I really wouldn't want to see it more than once.Sean is a young inexperienced gay man whose just moved to LA and is struggling to find his place in both his professional and personal life. While renting a gay X-rated film one night, he becomes intoxicated with its leading man Johnny Rebel (Scott Gurney). So he hightails it over to the company that made the film and gets himself a job as a P.A. (production assistant).This leads him to an encounter with none other than Johnny Rebel- who after some "difficulty" shooting a particular scene, carouses young Sean over to him and asks him for a little "help". Hence, Sean becomes a sort of personal "fluffer" for Johnny when he has this difficult moments from there on...."Fluffing" is a term that refers to someone who coaxes and erection out of a male porn actor when they are having trouble.So Sean becomes obsessed with Johnny- a guy who has plenty of demons of his own. Johnny is a straight, egotistical, arrogant crystal meth user who lives with his stripper girlfriend Julie (Roxanne Day).Things began to really spiral out of control when Julie gets pregnant, wants to have the baby, and Johnny starts to decline in his status as a top porn star.Some scenes in "The Fluffer" work very nicely. The scenes with Johnny and Julia, as well as most with Johnny and Sean are very well acted and play out nicely. Johnny is a tortured soul- and you can easily feel his despair. All three of the actors did a great job with their characters.The movie takes a real downturn towards the end- with Johnny and Sean hightailing it down to Mexico for reasons you'll have to watch to find out. Johnny's decent downhill plays out too quick, and overall is pretty far fetched. There's also a small subplot with Sean trying to date some other guy that really wasn't needed in the movie.Overall, this reviewer felt the stronger half of the film was it's first half. And although the subject matter and some scenes were a little too much for me personally, the performances in "The Fluffer" helped to make the movie watchable and believable for the most part.I wouldn't want to see it again- but would say the "The Fluffer" is an average film with some above average acting.

I just recently saw "the Fluffer" this weekend. I'd read many positive reviews of the film but came to gather a different feeling from watching it. Most movies with the words "coming of age story" on the back are usually hints that the lead character will go through many situations and we'll see them develope into their "new self" by the end. However, by the end of this movie i didn't feel like i knew anything more about the main character Sean. The movie starts off well, as we see Sean become more and more obsessed with gay-for-pay porn star Johnny Rebel, but somewhere in the near middle it begins to spiral into too many directions. I had a hard time figuring out who was the main character after a while, Johnny or Sean?Writer Wash West(moreland), better known for adult titles, begins to lose track also. It's not a bad debut for an adult writer and those of us who have been through the same situation as Sean will see a good portrayal of how it feels to love someone who doesn't love you back. The main problem is that Sean is as ambiguous of a character as Rebel, and it soon seems that his whole problem is in him and not his situation with Johnny. If this film was about that, it would be great...but it's not. The character depth and film direction is lacking, just as how commonly it lacks in adult films,which is a kind of an ironic trait to the film.Bottom line: performances are very good, the movie is entertaining but the writing lacks some direction. If it were an actual adult film, it would be the most dramatic one i've ever seen.