On paper, Lady Dynamite has a solid premise: a woman finds out her husband has been stepping out and decides she’s going to set herself free, sexually. In fact, it’s so solid it has to have been used countless times in books, film, and television, though I’m having a hard time coming up with an example. Chloe is the closest I can think of now, but it’s not quite the same. Anyway, solid premise is my point.
The execution is pretty weak sauce, though.
After a morning tryst with her husband, Valerie (Colleen Brennan), goes to her doctor (played by director Carlos Tobalina) for a physical. There, she finds out she has “a mild strain of gonorrhea”. Since she’s been “married and faithful to the same man for ten years”, the only explanation is that Ken (Shone Taylor) has been cheating. So, she decides she’s “going free” and that “every man who wants [her] can have [her]”.
With her newfound sexual freedom, she makes it with some rich guy named Phil (Blair Harris) who jets back to San Francisco from business in New York as soon as she calls, and attends a “wild” party at her friend Vicky’s (Laura Lazare, who always looks like her breath would smell like Camel Lights and Original Trident) which is supposed to be “just for the girls” but turns coed by some guys (Nick Niter, Rocky Balboa, and two dweebs) that Vicky invites.
Sometime (Hours? Days? Weeks? There's no sense of time in this film.) after the party, back at home, Ken tells her he’s a changed man and is done running around. Valerie only wants to know if he’ll “fuck [her] like [he does] the other women” because “some guys fuck the whores and the other women in their lives better than they fuck their wives”. Frankly, regardless of how good husbands give it to other women, having sex with Ken is a bad idea considering after Dr. Tobalina tells Valerie to send Ken in for his own treatment, she’s like, “Nah, he can keep the clap,” so she’s basically setting herself up for gonorrhea, round two. Unless she had a change of heart or the doctor blatantly ignored doctor/patient confidentiality and called Ken himself. Which is possible if not probable considering he seemed pretty Dr. Nick-ish, as evidenced by giving Valerie her penicillin shot before telling her what it was or what it was for.
Anyway, Ken - with or without gonorrhea - has sex with Valerie presumably in his non-marital style and then tells her he’s pleased that they’re back together and everything’s great. But Valerie gives him a literal “Sorry, Charlie.” And roll credits.
When I posted that Lady Dynamite was my next review, Jimmy from Golden Sin Palace commented “Carlos next... poor you. At least this one isn't too bad for him.” He laid out his opinion of Tobalina pretty succinctly in his review of Carnal Olympics: “...[M]ost of his films are boring and look more like something created in an assembly line than a film…”.
Reviewing Tobalina's oeuvre, I realized the majority that I’ve seen had an undeniable technical competence, but a detached, emotionless, antiseptic quality. That’s the way I feel about a lot of Brian De Palma films. De Palma, of course, is greatly inspired by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock famously made cameos in most of his films. Tobalina made cameos in nearly half of his films. Squint a little and it’s just like the daisy chain at Vicky’s party!
Let’s see what Robert Rimmer had to say:
The reasons for the CC rating are Colleen Brennan and the caring sexmaking, for the most part, in which she gets involved. Colleen is a very attractive redhead, and Troy/Carlos proves that he can make loving sexvids, too, when he has the right actress.
Colleen Brennan does look great, it’s true. Not so sure about the “caring sexmaking” and “loving sexvids”. Sure, none of the scenes had any rough stuff. And theoretically, the Brennan/Harris scene is “caring” in that Phil has unrequited feelings for Valerie, and though they won’t be together, he’s content to at least get to see her regularly. But categorizing Lady Dynamite as a “loving sexvid” is a stretch.
As for outright errors, Rimmer writes, “Colleen, who in this film has been married 14 years…” when she says no fewer than five times that she’s been married for ten years. Not too egregious, at least.
Carlos Tobalina certainly had the opportunity to put together a compelling story of a wronged woman reclaiming her sexuality, but Lady Dynamite wasn’t that. Had it been better constructed with a few more sex scenes exploring Valerie's expanding world (cutting the few in the film by - at least - a few minutes apiece), it could have been a CC50 or better. Instead, it's a CC100.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
° Nick Niter had some damn fancy footwork.
See this in all it's glory here.
° The soundtrack slapped. The main theme (admittedly, a little overused by the end of the film) had more than a little “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” to it and after Nick Niter et. al. show up to the party there’s this sorta Egyptian Lover/Devo hybrid electro call and response track that goes “Where’s the beef?”/”The beef is here!” (or vice versa, though question first makes more sense). Good work, Shamus!
° Speaking of “Where’s the beef?” IAFD and IMDB have Lady Dynamite listed as a 1983 film, but the credits have a 1984 copyright....
....which makes sense because the Wendy’s campaign was released in ‘84 and it’s highly unlikely that it was a saying before the Wendy’s commercials. Still makes you wonder if Shamus was inspired by Coyote McCloud’s song or the other way around?
° Perhaps the real stars of the film were the interiors of Phil’s boat:
And Vicky’s living room:
Next in line:
Oh man, this'll be an interesting one to discuss! Hopefully it won't take me six weeks to get around to.
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