The drugs and sex debauchery of Rock-n-Roll world of the 1970’s gets a gay twist in this joyous yet frustrating porno cum cautionary tale Confessions of a Male Groupie. Subtitled (in homage to Stanley Kubrick and his black sense of humor) “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Electric Banana”, this slice of a certain kind of life incorporates and captures the freewheeling abandon of post-hippie culture in Hollywood. At times this film is both shocking and radical, with its scenes of shooting up and celebration of pleasure for pleasure’s sake, but ultimately the rapturous ride of the main character, known only as The Groupie, ends badly. As for the sex, well, there ain’t no anal here, only some blowjobs and sixty-nining, but anyone who sees this film will realize that the sex is not the point.
Larry Danser, The Groupie, begins his journey with a line of coke. He sniffs the drug while listening to George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” and goes into a fever dream that begins with him dancing in a white-fringed poncho and ends with a jack-off session. The camera traces his hot little body as he works his erection; his face tilts back in ecstasy as droplets of pudding splatter onto his torso. Somehow this experience changes him and he decides to travel cross-country to Los Angeles. He explains as he walks along the streets of Anycity U.S.A how America looked a lot like his hometown, only bigger. He reaches Hollywood and, in what can be understood as the movie’s theme, tells us, “when I hit Hollywood it hit me back.”
He meets Sweet Lady Mary, a large queen of the groupies who looks stunningly like Mama Cass. She introduces him to a hedonistic lifestyle of lying about eating chocolate, smoking dope, and sauntering around town in fabulous clothes. Mary is also the woman all rock stars visit when in town. She and The Groupie spend most of their time waiting for the next group to arrive. Soon enough, The Electric Banana makes their way into Mary’s house and The Groupie’s heart. The Electric Banana is a three-man mess of long hair and a lust for all things illegal. Two of the members, Jeff and Frank, are lovers. One night they make stoned love on Mary’s bed as she sits on an adjacent chair licking a lollipop in tandem with their oral exchanges. The Groupie is officially hooked; now he wants the Rock-n-Roll life, especially Steve, the other member of the band.
Mary teaches The Groupie how to make plaster casts of rock star cocks (Cynthia Plaster Caster anyone?) so he can reach his goal of getting with Steve. Before this happens, though, he jacks off to a James Taylor album cover and Mary takes a smacked out bath. Finally, The Groupie gets it on with Steve, and the sex is about as exciting as Carrot Top—all gangly face fucking and tentative kissing. The film abruptly ends with a wonderfully shot and edited “anything goes” party that features various bedazzled men and women doing all sorts of sordid things. The Groupie then explains that all of this happened three years ago and since then he’s been busted for possession, Mary has dies of an overdose, and the Electric Banana broke up because one of the members was drafted.
Even in the midst of the decade of liberation some people knew that it was going to come to a crashing halt. However, I don’t think that even Tom De Simone, who always snuck conservative messages into his films, knew what was really coming…the 1980s. Nonetheless, Confessions of a Male Groupie is a testament to a world that can never exist again.
Stars: D.C. Michaels, Larry Danser, Myona Phetish, Ruffin Tumble, Sky Kinque, Sweet Lady Mary
Director: Tom DeSimone
Released: 1971
Duration : 00:58:36
Resolution : 640x480
Video : MPEG-4 Visual (XviD), 1 998 Kbps, 29.970 fps
