FILM REVIEW: THE BLUE TOOTH VIRGIN

Where is the bite? Bryce Johnson stars in The Blue Tooth Virgin.


Which side are you on?

By Don Simpson

Sam (Austin Peck) is an aspiring screenwriter whose fame (and income) from a short-lived television show has completely faded away. Now, Sam is struggling to hop back on the proverbial writing horse. With a few completed scripts wallowing in script hell, Sam suspects that his newest effort, The Blue Tooth Virgin, is the masterwork of his career. Sam’s screenwriter friends all agree that The Blue Tooth Virgin is a work of creative genius, but that could be the result of a circle jerk of artists unconditionally supporting and praising each other because when the time comes they will want support and praise for their own effort.

It is when Sam entrusts his non-screenwriter friend, David (Bryce Johnson), with the script and requests his non-professional opinion, that the house of cards comes tumbling down. David, a successful magazine editor, does not understand the convoluted mess of Sam’s ever-morphing lead character and non-linear plot. David enjoys more popular and traditional fare – the everyday tripe and dribble produced in Hollywood. Sam’s The Blue Tooth Virgin is clearly a rebellion against Hollywood (and David’s cinematic taste). Sam considers himself to be an artist, attempting to break new ground in the world of cinema and he takes David’s criticisms as a personal attack and an attempt to force him to conform to Hollywood’s conventions.

In the end, both Sam and David are forced to reevaluate their motivations to write as well as their need for praise and validation.

Writer-director Russell Brown’s low-budget talkie, offers no cinematic flourishes or even creativity; instead Brown’s The Blue Tooth Virgin cuts right to the dialogue. There is a tinge of irony here since Brown’s sympathy seems to sway towards Sam and his desire to make cinematic art, however the drab and conventional plot structure of The Blue Tooth Virgin would definitely be David’s cup of tea.