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Daniel MacIvor, Joshua Peace

Canadian filmmaker Thom Fitzgerald made his name on the gay film scene with his dramatic fantasia The Hanging Garden, but with Beefcake he captures a more lightheartedly dreamy tone: The...( read more  read more... ) film takes its lead from Valentine Hooven's lip-smackingly compulsive coffee table tome of the same name. We're offered a teasing, pseudo-history of mid-century pop male photography, featuring quaint muscle-mag shots and nude "studies" of, among others, a hungrily seductive young Joe Dallesandro (before he made his name in underground Andy Warhol flicks like Flesh). Dallesandro's here to talk, along with other "models" who mostly supply commentary on Bob Mizer, the enterprising founder of the Athletic Model Guild. Fitzgerald blends the real-life documentary material into his fictional confection concerning a sexy bumpkin who falls into Mizer's AMG set-up (it produced America's first closeted gay erotica publication, passing itself off as an innocently obsessive guide to health and fitness). The campy original story--the hero's Valley of the Dolls-inspired name is Neil O'Hara--is a bit dumb, actually, mostly because it's not even half as interesting as the real deal. Lots of innocently nude frolicking doesn't hurt, though, and the film engages when it manages to be as naively sweet and erotic as Mizer's bygone magazines. --Steve Wiecking

Flixster Users

63% liked it

1,141 ratings

Critics

57% liked it

7 critics

Unrated, 93 min.

Directed by: Thom Fitzgerald

Release Date: October 13, 1999

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DVD Release Date: December 12, 2000

Stats: 40 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (40)

  • davodd
    June 1, 2007
    davodd
    Semi-documentary on the "muscle" and "art" magazines of the 1940s-1960s.
  • samanthapoxton
    July 7, 2009
    samanthapoxton
    A pointed look into the undiscovered Hollywood. The seedy underbelly of 'those' magazines.
  • suhedreams
    January 8, 2009
    suhedreams
    funny and sexy film!
  • sepio41
    November 23, 2008
    sepio41
    this is one of the few films i've ever walked out on. i thought it was going to be a documentary about bob mizer and i thought it would finally give voice to the men and boys he photographed. 10 dollars later, i realized i was WRONG!
  • princessfayefaye
    September 3, 2007
    princessfayefaye
    WHAT THE F@#K!!!!!!!
  • reffi666
    March 31, 2007
    reffi666
    the pic is disturbin enough
  • brodyalex
    February 3, 2007
    brodyalex
    *laughs her ass off and falls off her chair*

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