Word: priestley
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...past, Jason Priestley has played roles, such as the character Brandon on the hit TV show "Beverly Hills 90210," that have propelled him into nationwide teen idolhood. Similarly, Ronnie Bostock, the heart-throb B-movie actor that Priestly plays in Richard Kwietniowski's debut film, Love and Death on Long Island, occupies an equivalent pop-culture status. Ronnie's biggest fan, however, is not the typical hormone-racked female teenager, but rather the established middle-aged English writer, Giles De'Ath, convincingly played by John Hurt. Hurt gives the film his very best, but he can't overcome...
...ways of technology and pop-culture.He mistakes microwaves for VCRs and marvels at acordless telephone. Despite these pleasantadditions of humor, the film still recedes into asort of sameness that saps our enthusiasm. Itdoesn't help that Ronnie Bostock is not nearly asinteresting and seductive as Giles' preoccupationshould demand. Priestley plays his roleadequately, but he doesn't exactly ooze superhumansexuality or personality. In short, Ronnie is notmuch more absorbing than the dumb roles he playsin the movies and on television. Ronnie evennaively asks Giles, "Are you saying, that ifShakespeare were alive today, he'd be doing thingslike Hotpants College...
...comparison to Hurt's astute acting,Priestley's is fair but unmemorable. He and his90210 buddies might have graduated from college,but he hasn't moved on to the next level ofacting. Ronnie's girlfriend in the movie, Audrey,played by Fiona Loewi, makes her presence known.Not only is she naturally beautiful but she playsher role with an alluring animation. She alsopresents her character with a keeness thatseparates her from the typical airhead. Gilesunderstands that she is an obstacle in his path towinning Ronnie's love. While he still retains hopethat he will succeed, we know his love will remainunrequited...
...novelist, has had so little contact with the late 20th century that he can't tell a microwave from a VCR. One day, by mistake, he watches a trashy teenpic called Hotpants College 2 and finds, he thinks, a reason for loving. In an actor named Ronnie Bostock (Jason Priestley), Giles sees all the beauty of the ages in one glorious package. The donnish writer buys fan mags, rents B-minus films, immerses himself in the detritus of Bostockiana. To your eyes Ronnie might seem a bland dreamboat, but that is part of the fun in this delicious comedy...
Director Richard Kwietniowski, adapting Gilbert Adair's novel, uses Priestley's fretful blankness to handsome comic effect. But Hurt is the big news here. Dignified and dithery, he makes Giles one of the most charming predators in ages. Like Von Aschenbach in Death in Venice, like Lolita's Humbert Humbert, he is a man of culture finding beauty in youth, in coarseness--in "all that I myself have never been." To Giles, ecstasy comes in small packages. For viewers, this film is one of them...