Reviews & Ratings for
The Fluffer More at IMDbPro »

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14 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
A Well Made Film, 23 May 2004

Author: WraithX from New Zealand

I am surprised at how many people have given 'The Fluffer' a poor rating. I found the film to be very entertaining. The acting was excellent, the writing was excellent, and the sexual tension is incredibly well portrayed. I would say it is not as good as My Own Private Idaho, but it was certainly up there with it in quality.

The main character, Sean McGinnis (played by Michael Cunio) was very believable and I would like to see him in more films. The porn star was played very well by Scott Gurney who has since gone on to become the host of a reality TV program (what a shame).

This is a definite surprise film – I expected b-grade and definitely got a-grade.

See it; you will not regret it.

13 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Tries "hard", but only makes it so far., 12 October 2002
Author: Poseidon-3 from Cincinnati, OH

This film delves into the world of gay pornography in a similar (if inferior) way that "Boogie Nights" dissected straight porn. Cunio is a classic film lover, new to L.A., who inadvertently views a gay porno movie featuring Gurney. Soon, his obsession with Gurney reaches the point where he is willing to get a job in the industry merely to catch a glimpse of him. Eventually, he finds himself closer to him than he ever dreamed possible (hence the title.) Unfortunately, Gurney is ostensibly straight and does these films merely for the money. The film touches on, but doesn't explore fully, the fascinating aspect of this. Why, if Gurney is straight, is he able to (and willing to) be 'fluffed' by a male? Wouldn't a female do this job more efficiently? Why does Gurney allow Cunio to perform fellatio on him, but won't allow him to kiss on the lips? These questions are the ones that could provide more drama, insight and discussion than the rather obvious and tired explorations of drugs, crime and losing grip on popularity. The film might have had more impact if it had focused on the relationship between the two male leads and downplayed the more familiar aspects of the setting. The film has elements that are both clichéd and clever. The thing is that clichés are clichés because they have actually happened so many times that people begin to expect them. The clichés in this film are actualities in nearly every case. It just may not be necessary to dwell on them again (even thought they are ably presented here.) One particularly clever moment occurs when Cunio finally sets a date to go out with Gurney and when the day arrives, 'FRIDAY' flashes on the screen to the sound of an alarm. This was surprising and charming. The performances are excellent all around. Cunio is wonderful. He's gorgeous and affecting and is bound to go places if he can avoid type-casting after this. Gurney is excellent as well and totally 'gets' his character. His girlfriend is played by the striking Day who is a revelation in her portrayal. She excels at nearly every aspect of her character and is able to make the stale 'dancer with a heart of gold' role interesting and sympathetic. A palette of familiar faces rounds out the cast and all performers do well. "Lou Grant" fans should be stunned to see former cast member Walden practically begging to give oral sex to various men, but he does it convincingly. The faux video titles and covers are amusing and accurate (and the DVD presents a gallery of them.) One added note: a dash of frontal nudity may have given this film a bit more ring of truth. It's avoidance of it gives the movie a sometimes coy feel which is completely at odds with the gritty subject matter.

9 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Not as bad as I heard, 26 June 2002

Author: Wayne Malin (wwaayynnee51@hotmail.com) from United States

A bisexual young man (Michael Cunio) gets a job at a porno company to get close to a porn star (Scott Gurney) that he's in love with. Unfortunately, the star is straight and living with his girlfriend.

This film got some savage reviews in the gay press so I expected the worst. But it was pretty good. It starts off as a mild but very funny comedy and suddenly veers off into depressing drama at the end. It's jarring but it does end up working. Still, the ending was pretty bad and very negative. All in all, it's an OK film with a funny view of the gay porn industry.

The acting is good--especially by Gurney. He absolutely gorgeous with an incredible body...and he can act! He's VERY pleasing to the eyes. Cunio is just OK as the kid. Not bad, not good, just OK. Also Deborah Harry (Blondie) turns in a strong performance as a strip club owner.

One big problem: Despite the subject matter, there is no frontal male nudity!!!! Whose idea was that?

10 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Interesting, yet Difficult to Watch, 25 June 2004
Author: Nick Dets from US

After Paul Thomas Anderson's "Boogie Nights", the porn industry has been explored in a few interesting ways. Last year's "Wonderland" showed the downfall of porn legend John Holmes, a study of how desperate he became after realizing he hasn't been seen for anything but his "manhood". I recently saw "The Fluffer" which is detached to its subject, and simply shows how the characters are affected by their work.

"The Fluffer" is a film that unflinchingly shows the work of a small gay porn studio. I questioned its taste in some points, but I did in "Boogie Nights" also. I liked how it realistically shows how sex outweighing love leads to insanity in some form or another, but it is extremely hard to watch in spots.

Wash Westmoreland's story follows a pure young man named Sean who lets himself be degraded and used in his work as a cameraman in the studio. He falls for the studio's biggest star, Johnny Rebel. Rebel is straight, or so they say, but Sean can't help but love him. I found this point interesting, how Rebel (and I'm sure many straight porno stars) reduces himself to the homosexual market for more money. Anyway, Sean lets himself be dehumanized by Rebel and soon the industry sends all their lives in the wrong direction.

As a whole, "The Fluffer" doesn't fully succeed. Its messages are all told in familiar ways, (note the use of American flags to show the faded American dream for example) and the ending isn't fully convincing. However, it is a film that never stops entertaining and is definitely one of the very bravest depictions of the porn industry I've ever seen.

(2 and 1/2 out of 4)

8 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
the writer needs "fluffing", 23 August 2002
Author: tim_yellow from chicago

I just recently saw "the Fluffer" this weekend. I'd read many positive reviews of the film but came to gather a different feeling from watching it. Most movies with the words "coming of age story" on the back are usually hints that the lead character will go through many situations and we'll see them develope into their "new self" by the end. However, by the end of this movie i didn't feel like i knew anything more about the main character Sean. The movie starts off well, as we see Sean become more and more obsessed with gay-for-pay porn star Johnny Rebel, but somewhere in the near middle it begins to spiral into too many directions. I had a hard time figuring out who was the main character after a while, Johnny or Sean?

Writer Wash West(moreland), better known for adult titles, begins to lose track also. It's not a bad debut for an adult writer and those of us who have been through the same situation as Sean will see a good portrayal of how it feels to love someone who doesn't love you back. The main problem is that Sean is as ambiguous of a character as Rebel, and it soon seems that his whole problem is in him and not his situation with Johnny. If this film was about that, it would be great...but it's not. The character depth and film direction is lacking, just as how commonly it lacks in adult films,which is a kind of an ironic trait to the film.

Bottom line: performances are very good, the movie is entertaining but the writing lacks some direction. If it were an actual adult film, it would be the most dramatic one i've ever seen.

4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
I liked this one, 3 February 2002

Author: shaid from Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Sean McGinnis (Michael Cunio) apply(and get the job) for a job as a cameraman in Janus Studio, which produce gay porn films, so he can work closely to his porn idol Johnny Rebel(Scott Gurney). This the basic story that serve as vehicle for a behind the scenes film about the porn industry. And it is a rather good vehicle. The story is simple and in the script writter Wash Westmoreland have inserted some one-liners which say something about the industry. I admit that there is nothing new in what he says(gay for pay,what actors in the industry do after their "career" before the camera ends, drugs in the industry, the short career they have and etc.) but he still manage to keep you interested with what happened with the characters.

Scott Gurney is the perfect casting for the role of Johnny Rebel and Sean McGinnis is good as the naive but obsessed cameraman. But the best performance come from Robert Walden(Chad Cox) and Roxanne Day(Babylon)and only(but not only) for their performance the film is worth watching.

This is not Boogie Nights(it lacks the complexity of that one) but it is nicely done, a little bit funny and engaging.

12 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
amazing movie!, 8 February 2004
Author: Jill from USA

I LOVE THIS MOVIE ~! i am not of gay nature, but me and my friend rented this last night as a joke... expecting to just see some gay porn. the story actually touched us... as did the pornographer. other people say the stories of pornographers do not matter... that they have nothing important to offer. this movie just proves them wrong... it shows that everybody has a story to tell... and this one was interesting. we loved the part where we saw his penis! for all the people who want what they can't have... this movie is for all you lustless lovers.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Timing, 15 March 2006

Author: klayboi from Sydney, Australia

In relation to an earlier post mentioning the time of 10.30 being focused on throughout the movie, I'd like to correct this by saying that the clocks all showed the time to be approximately 9.30!!! Unfortunately the significance of this time is vague. Onto the actual movie though, I thought the plot was rather dim and boring with a few one liners thrown in for good measure. Quite a few actors in the film are recognizable from all sources..TV, film etc. The cute boys are aplenty in the film but it's ironic that since this is a movie about the (porn) movie industry, you'd be forgiven for thinking any of them could actually ACT!

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Stuck in the middle with you....., 5 October 2005

Author: Boggman from Laguna Hills, CA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

"The Fluffer" boasts some moments of really good acting and some quality comedic & dramatic scenes throughout it's run. However, as a heterosexual male, this movie also had plenty of moments that left me feeling uncomfortable, and some others that were pretty outlandish.

Not to familiar with movies in this genre, I thought I would give this one a go. It was worth watching, but I really wouldn't want to see it more than once.

Sean is a young inexperienced gay man whose just moved to LA and is struggling to find his place in both his professional and personal life. While renting a gay X-rated film one night, he becomes intoxicated with its leading man Johnny Rebel (Scott Gurney). So he hightails it over to the company that made the film and gets himself a job as a P.A. (production assistant).

This leads him to an encounter with none other than Johnny Rebel- who after some "difficulty" shooting a particular scene, carouses young Sean over to him and asks him for a little "help". Hence, Sean becomes a sort of personal "fluffer" for Johnny when he has this difficult moments from there on....

"Fluffing" is a term that refers to someone who coaxes and erection out of a male porn actor when they are having trouble.

So Sean becomes obsessed with Johnny- a guy who has plenty of demons of his own. Johnny is a straight, egotistical, arrogant crystal meth user who lives with his stripper girlfriend Julie (Roxanne Day).

Things began to really spiral out of control when Julie gets pregnant, wants to have the baby, and Johnny starts to decline in his status as a top porn star.

Some scenes in "The Fluffer" work very nicely. The scenes with Johnny and Julia, as well as most with Johnny and Sean are very well acted and play out nicely. Johnny is a tortured soul- and you can easily feel his despair. All three of the actors did a great job with their characters.

The movie takes a real downturn towards the end- with Johnny and Sean hightailing it down to Mexico for reasons you'll have to watch to find out. Johnny's decent downhill plays out too quick, and overall is pretty far fetched. There's also a small subplot with Sean trying to date some other guy that really wasn't needed in the movie.

Overall, this reviewer felt the stronger half of the film was it's first half. And although the subject matter and some scenes were a little too much for me personally, the performances in "The Fluffer" helped to make the movie watchable and believable for the most part.

I wouldn't want to see it again- but would say the "The Fluffer" is an average film with some above average acting.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
The ending is a loser!, 2 February 2005

Author: bellhollow from Nashville, Tennessee

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

OK, so I get to see some big time actors in a movie about low budget gay porn and I learn what the word fluffer means. I am so glad I found out about that. Okay, so now we have a straight man doing gay porn and doing his girl friend and I think the new word is called bisexual. Then we have this burned out has been porn actor kill a guy for some more take on stolen property and he walks away into the wonderful ocean scenery to enjoy a life of having lovely senoritas for snacks. I really wasn't ticked off with this film until the end which just absolutely stunk. The one character is ditched and stuck in Mexico to do what, find his worthless gay porn actor again? The worthless gay porn actor is free to the life of robbing Mexican grocery stores? Why even develop the characters for such a loser ending?

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