Some Nudity Required

Filmmaker Odette Springer, a film composer who worked for Roger Corman, King of the B-Movies, reveals more skin (including her own) than secrets in this exposé of the world of exploitation movies. Actresses, directors and producers offer mostly sanitized comments (I don't mean that there are no real tales of the casting couch--which there aren't--but rather, interviewees are tight-lipped about budgets ["from low to low"] and salaries, not to mention reluctant to name names), with the exception of Maria Ford (starring in Slumber Party Massacre III, among many others), whose onscreen bump 'n grind sex kitten image is somewhat belied by her insecure, occasionally naïve, but sincere real life persona. Although critical of B-movies, Springer has, unfortunately, chosen a B-movie structure to frame her own film, narrating a personal tale of woe in between bombarding the audience with clips of blood and breasts. Her revelation at the end of the film that she was abused as a child comes as absolutely no surprise to an audience whose not only known it from the first five minutes, but also had to patiently sit through all the portentous additional clues sprinkled throughout this Sundance Film Festival entry. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Pitman)