Steve Pulaski Let's say you're tired of slack-brained comedies dealing with mature subjects the prepubescent way. Let's say you've watched your fair share of raunchy comedies with heart and are now just looking for the "heart." And let's say you want a film that doesn't sacrifice performances for writing or vice-versa. You may want to listen up here.Keith Bearden's Meet Monica Velour is a mature film about a mature subject, which is coming-of-age and entering reality after being confined to a fantasy that one has developed over a long period of time. It centers around Tobe (Dustin Ingram), a shy seventeen year old who has an undying fascination with classic movies, music, and pornography. He lives with his cantankerous grandfather (Brian Dennehy) and his best friend is only twelve years old. But the person he loves more than these two combined is Monica Velour, a sexy porn star who made a living doing seventies exploitation flicks. Tobe's deep fascination with the woman only increases because she has faded into complete obscurity, no longer acting and not leaving any traces behind.When Tobe discovers the one and only Monica Velour will be appearing at a strip club, he makes the long commute to not only meet her, but also sell the only car he has - an bulky van with a gigantic hot dog attached to the roof. When he finally arrives at the strip club, the woman he sees isn't quite who everyone would label attractive. Monica (Kim Cattrall) is now an aging, deeply unhappy woman, juggling child-custody, a deadbeat boyfriend, her uncompromising and somewhat-regrettable legacy, and constant ridiculing for her life choices. Tobe is still undeniably starstruck when he meets the woman, and strikes up a friendship after he is assaulted at the bar by a group of thugs.The biggest problem with Monica's relationship with Tobe is that Tobe lives in, what appears to be, another reality, one where Monica is still the incredible porn-goddess she once was and where problems can be fixed by ditching life's current situation in favor of what looks to be a long-term solution. Monica views Tobe's decision-making as reckless and lethal to her stability, but can't shake the thought that he is a young, starstruck soul with more of a voice than most of the other kids his age. It's that conflict and the enormous age difference that makes their relationship thrive.Cattrall is a wise choice for Monica. She is the right amount of sexy for the role, but she is also the right amount of brains and intelligence as well, as she plays Monica with a sense of helplessness but also bravery. Here's a woman that has been broken numerous times, and here she stands, beaten, torn, and clearly roughed-up. But she's not giving up; she's too powerful for that.Ingram plays Tobe effectively too, humanizing what could've been the most stereotypical, unlikable nerd. Rather than making him insufferably quirky and unrealistically inept like, say, his doppelganger Napoleon Dynamite, Bearden turns the character into a likable man with a real heart and wit to his strange, socially awkward nature. He's not all skin and quirks, and the movie actually gives him a firm leg to stand on.Meet Monica Velour is, uniformly, a quiet film. The film moves quickly, but not too quickly as to where it is easy to forget. The ethics and choices of the characters demand contemplation (even if some - including the climax - seem to be a bit forced), the commentary it includes on the porn world outside of the STD-craze is noteworthy, and the cinematography and locational beauty of the entire project is, at the very least, nicely displayed throughout the course of the film. Throw in great performances from Cattrall - who may be giving her career-worthy performance here - and a nice introduction into film from Ingram and you have a winning film.Starring: Dustin Ingram and Kim Cattrall. Directed by: Keith Bearden.

MBunge This film is disappointingly good. Not because I would hoping it would suck and it didn't, but because it is fundamentally flawed in a way that all the positive things movie cannot overcome. This is a funny, sensitive story with fine performances and careful direction. It's also a tale that is structurally centered on one character while its emotional focus is almost entirely on another. The plot is all about a 17 year old kid who seeks out the 1980s porn star he's fantasized about for years. However, that harshly aged porn star is the only one writer/director Keith Bearden really cares about. It is her life and her struggle that are at the heart of this film, even though she's only a supporting character and the movie revolves around the mostly hapless teen. At the end of Meet Monica Velour, the viewer knows far more about the ex-porn star than the teen and understands her better than him. That's like knowing more about Fredo than Michael at the end of The Godfather II or more about Han than Luke at the end of Star Wars.Let me try and put it this way. The teenager's obsession with the porn star is the most important thing in his life. Yet, the audience is provided with not one scintilla of explanation for why he's obsessed with this particular figure from X rated history or how he even discovered her. This motion picture is set in 2010, which means the kid was born in 1993. The porn star ended her career the better part of a decade before the kid was born and the better part of two decades before he entered puberty. How did he find out she ever existed? And what is it about her that commands his pre-adolescent brand of adoration? I'll admit the former is primarily a pesky little plot detail that others might not care about. The latter is at the core of who this kid is, how he got to be that way and why he does the things he does. No matter how otherwise well written or performed the role, and both are nicely accomplished here, this is a character with a gaping void where his humanity should be. He's a puppet through which Bearden and actor Dustin Ingram show off their considerable talents, but that's all.In addition to Ingram, Kim Cattrall as the ex-porn star and Brian Dennehy as the teenager's grandpa are quite enjoyable to watch and their characters do have a bit of historical and personal depth to them. Even the smaller parts like Daniel Yelsky as a neighbor boy, Jee Young Han as the girl the main character should be lusting over, Keith David as the wise man who enters the teen's life and Sam McMurray as the ex-porn star's ex-husband feel like living human beings. There's not a question is my mind that you could leave almost everything else the same and if you concentrated the story on Cattrall's character and cast Ingram in a supporting role, this would have been a vastly better and more entertaining film.If Keith Bearden had only directed someone else's script, I'd be very interested in seeing more work from him. He does that good a job telling this story. That's he's the one who came up with this out-of-whack screenplay, however, gives me pause. I'd still be interested but I'd want to know what other people thought of it before investing my time and money. If you're a fan of any of the actors here, you might like Meet Monica Velour. Even though there's a lot of skill and talent evident in this production, I can't say anything better about it than that.

twilliams76 Even with a surprisingly strong performance from Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City, Mannequin, The Ghost Writer) as the titular character, it isn't worth meeting Monica Velour. The film is too clichéd to be any good and with a Napoleon Dynamite-ish protagonist (Dustin Ingram - Sky High) parts of it are downright bad. It is ALL seen that/done that.It is a coming of age tale about the Napoleon-clone, Tobe, who graduates from high school a virgin (oh the horror!) and is gifted a Weiner food-truck by his grandfather, Pop Pop (Brian Dennehy - First Blood, Romeo + Juliet, Assault on Precinct 13) upon graduation. It must be noted that Tobe is rather ungrateful for the gift which makes it difficult for him and the film to win-over a viewer ("oh the kid's un-imaginable plight!")To give Tobe a bit of originality, he adores vintage porn with one actress from the early 80's in particular -- Monica Velour. When he decides to sell his Weiner truck AND finds out that Ms. Velour is performing a special engagement near the buyer's location (oh the convenience!!!), Tobe roadtrips to Indiana to meet the woman of his dreams. What he discovers is that Ms. Velour is rather washed-up and jaded (and old) ... although she does initially fancy the young man's flirtations. Again -- it is ALL seen that/done that before. Tobe is supposed to come across as a pure innocent who wants/longs to help this damsel in distress; but his initial inability to listen to reason and wisdom offered up by the sage elder he is selling his truck to (Keith David - Platoon, Crash, There's Something About Mary) annoys.The film goes exactly where you'd expect it to go ... nothing more, nothing less ... except for a most-unfortunate scene from FORMERLY respected film-vet Dennehy. :( ... yes, that's a sad face. If I could type tears, they'd be there too.

Jimmy Collins So here i am wandering through my local video store looking for something good to watch and i stumble across Meet Monica Velour, judging from the cover and the description on the back i was expecting the usual silly sex comedy, boy was i wrong.Meet Monica Velour is exceptional, at times hilarious, at times awkward, at times heartbreaking. And it is all thanks to a fearless performance from Kim Cattrall, she is just down right amazing as this extremely damaged character. Never have i seen her better, she is as much this character as she is Samantha from SATC. The fact that she can immortalize a character such as Samantha and then do something completely different like this is the making of a truly great actress, and also a shamefully under-rated one.The story is wonderful, the super nerd of a small town finally gets the chance to meet his favourite porn star only to realize that her life is very different than what he imagined it would be, cue a friendship like no other i've seen in film. After i realized that this movie was totally different than what i thought it was going to be i then had the though "oh this is going to be a sappy feel good story", wrong again, this is a totally original story that doesn't have a scrap of cliché at all.I hope this movie finds a wide audience, its so deserving, Kim Cattrall needs to be in more great movies like this...... She's so great to watch.See it, you'll love it....... ;)