Monday, July 11, 2011

Jason slips into a Vortex and goes WILD IN THE STREETS

Seems like it has been too long since I hung out at my favorite underground cinema club. Anyway, the patriotic vibe didn't end after July 4th, every Thursday this month they're keeping it alive with The United States of Vortex. And last Thursday I was there to catch WILD IN THE STREETS (1968).

Christopher Jones stars as Max Flatow, aka Max Frost in Barry Shear's awesome little satire about youth taking over. Max Flatow is an uncontrollable child who is nothing but trouble to his parents (mother is Shelley Winters). He runs away from home and reappears 7 years later as Max Frost, the biggest rock and roll sensation ever, singing anthems of youth power. Senator Fergus (Hal Holbrook) sees him as the key to the youth vote, but giving Frost a taste of power is a bad idea, as he gets the idea that he should be President (ignore the whole minimum age of 35 years, he can be a 20-something Prez). He wins in a landslide, then starts shuffling all the old geezers (you know, never trust anyone over 30) into camps. It's an awesome little distorted funhouse mirror held up to the dreams of a youth revolution. My only complaint is that Richard Pryor isn't given much to work with as a member of his inner circle. Of course, Richard Pryor was pretty much an unknown back then.

Running Time: 94 minutes
My Total Minutes: 242,190

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