Joel Landwehr

In Hot Blood

Joel Landwehr

Rita, an ill-paid factory worker, is determined to make it as a model in New York City. She's an ordinary girl with an extraordinary body. She learns by watching other models, but she also knows that photographers will insist on gratifying their own pleasure if she's to get the jobs. With a voice-over narration supplying all the commentary, we watch her six-month descent, from first jobs to wild parties, from drug use to seduction. "Pain is their pastime," says the narrator. How far will the degradation take Rita?

Fluctuations

Joel Landwehr

Sondra Bender, Eric Carlson

A bizarre don't-even-try-to-make-sense-of-it bombardment of sexual imagery that plays like stream of consciousness from a degenerate: threesomes, foursomes, lesbians, bondage, hair-whipping (!) and, believe it or not, even kung-fu. Avant-garde masterpiece or pure gutter trash? Perhaps both.