Word: toback
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...have those two things in mind, you’re not ever really going to be serious about your work. If all you’re worried about is pleasing other people, you’re not going to have any call left at all.” Plus, Toback is used to labels pinned on him by his many passionate critical detractors and supporters over his thirty-year span as a major American writer/director—loquacious, honest, blunt, in-your-face, compulsive, lecherous. But one thing is absolutely certain: Be it through his films or his intense...
...trapped between the lecherous and dishonest motivations of two men who lack the emotional ability to understand her needs. The film is framed by Toback’s exploration of this narrative within the context of Vera’s rampant sexuality and her search for self-discovery. Toback mixes hip-hop with Beethoven, steadicam control with voyeuristic video footage, and he strikes an unlikely balance between conventional melodrama and episodic airiness. Like many of his films, When Will I Be Loved features copious sex, nudity and dialogue that feels simultaneously spontaneous and weirdly controlled...
...sexual aspect of the film is something that, unsurprisingly, has made many critics attack the film as exploitative, with some even calling it misogynistic in its unabashed portrayal of Vera’s numerous sexual exploits that lie at the heart of what Toback calls her “desire for self-discovery...
...perhaps worthy to note that attacks on Toback as a misogynist are often wrapped up in the copious press on his personal life. A popular gossip magazine in the ’80s called Spy printed a sensationalist chronicle of Toback’s attempted sexual exploits over a short time period. A four-page foldout chart in the magazine detailed whom he hit on and how he worked his magic. His compulsive girl-chasing behavior, his admitted gambling addiction and, above all, his blunt comments about people he dislikes in the industry have made many critics cast...
Campbell bares all in the film. We see her masturbating in the shower, cruising numerous men while on a walk with a sketchy Columbia professor (played by Toback himself), having sex with her boyfriend and videotaping a charged encounter with a female lover. To Toback, the sexual energy of the character is necessary to establish her as a woman at a stage in her life in which her sexual proclivities are pushed to the forefront of her developing emotional maturity. At times the film plays like a kind of realist La Dolce Vita, showing a woman so lax and free...