Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Fox Movie Channel
7 tonight
In this site's current OnDVD column by one Miss Nicole Campos, she writes, and I quote, “Matt Coker doesn't get Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.” Ms. Campos says she gets my lack of enthusiasm, that part of the Russ Meyer's film's appeal “is that you're never quite sure what the hell it is you're watching. Part sex comedy, part musical, even part neo-Guignol horror (the Manson killings are evoked very late in the game), the story of three gorgeous gals whose rock group takes Hollywood by storm is so loaded with big hair, bigger boobs and pricelessly corny lines that, as Newsweek's David Ansen deftly notes in the accompanying documentaries, it blurs your perception of what defines a good vs. a bad movie.” I disagree with both notions: I do know what the hell I'm watching, and my perception is I'm watching a bad movie. But this thing has legions of fans (so did Hitler!), and since people I know and admire (like a certain Ms. Campos) love this steaming pile of celluloid, who am I not to let ya'all know that you can see it for free the night before it's available for sale on DVD? Give it a spin if you like, I'm going to the other room to eat a taco.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.