Forty Deuce (1982, Paul Morrissey)

The film consists of a 12 year old runaway some rent boys had been pimping dying in their bedroom and them discussing what they are going to do about it. They eventually invite a client over and drug him up in the hope that they can blame it on him. While the locations are grimy, there is nothing explicit in the film. Based on a play by Adam Bowne, to which its dialogue heavy nature must have been better suited, as the film is never ending repetitive talk. Unfortunately it is all rendered incomprehensible due to accents, slang and bad quality sound. While it is most famous for having a pre-fame greasy haired Kevin Bacon playing a junkie drug dealer the only interesting moments come from a female drug dealer’s deranged delivery of her lines and Orson Beans performance as a paedophile trick. It is nice to see 42nd street in New York back when it was a seedy cess pit but the film doesn’t have the comedy of Morrissey’s earlier and vastly superior Trash or Heat and its pace is mind numbingly dull.
1/5
Available from revengeismydestiny.com with foreign subtitles

Daisy Diamond (2007, Simon Staho)

Similar to Lilya-4-Ever, except without the comedy value. Noomi Rapace plays Anna, a single mother trying to make it as an actress, failing countless auditions, trading sex for parts and eventually turning to prostitution and pornography. The post-modernism in the film gets rather tiresome but all the acting is superb. The film features frequent references to Bergman’s Persona. The first half of the film is hampered by a highly annoying perpetually crying baby. By the end it’s rather like a po-faced exploitation film, depressing rather than fun, with two clear morals, never have children or try to make it as an actor.
3/5

Hanna D: The Girl from Vondal Park (1984, Rino Di Silvestro)

The storyline is clearly inspired by the po-faced downer of a movie that is Christiane F, that of a school girl developing a drug addiction and turning to prostitution. This however, starts off as the most camp and exploitatively brilliant film ever but soon gets repetitive and runs out of ideas until a thoroughly rubbish happy-ending entirely out of keeping with the tone of the rest of the film.
4/5