As often, maybe as always with Kuchar films, we’re not completely sure what’s intended here, or what it adds up to. Here lies much of the appeal, and much of the difficulty of their great, problematical Underground ouevre.
This poor gal! Kuchar is very funny, with all of his outlandish directorial interjections and instructions. Based on this display you could also conclude that he’s a clueless exploiter, or maybe a self-reflexive jerk. There are dividends. Watch him send up and obliterate the conventions of the audition, or of women appearing in films by men. There are also ambiguities. Is this excess, or emphatic and ultimately quite productive directorial passion. He requires a hilarious and appalling great deal of his actress, but does he ever pitch in with a will, and put himself on the line as much as she does. Just as much, even more—and haven’t we seen it, over and over through all these years?—he’s full of really good-in-their-loopy-way ideas.