The title character of James Westby's The Auteur, Arturo Domingo (played by Melik Malkasian), is the most artistically creative filmmaker working in hardcore pronography. Westby's movie is mostly set over the course of one busy weekend in its hero's life, during which he's in Portland to attend a tribute being held in his honor at Cinema 21. The festivities include a documentary about his life and work and a career retrospective, which provide a handy way to brief the audience on his back story: how he was set on his path to glory after reaching under his parents' bed and pulling out a copy of Hustler with one hand and a copy of Cahiers du Cinema with the other; how he met the actor who would become his regular leading man and muse, Frank E. Norma (John Breen), and how they would work together on his first masterpiece, Five Easy Nieces ("I can set you up with a room for the night, but you'll have to put up with those nieces of mine."); and how their string of hits, and Arturo's marriage as well, ended with the ambitious Vietnam war film Full Metal Jackoff, which was intended to be "a journey through Hell, with a nice hand release at the end." After the producer reshot and re-edited it, Arturo and Frank parted ways, and the director's career has been in a tailspin ever since. The reaction to his latest is summed up in a cameo by Screengrab contributor D. K. Holm, who appears onscreen just long enough to declare in wonder, "Even I didn't feel like masturbating to this."
The Auteur can't be called a rigorously constructed piece of work. Endearingly ramshackle, it rolls along from set piece to set piece, with some strokes of virtuoso silliness rubbing shoulders with some clunkers, and at least one of the minor supporting players needs to just be put down, in the veterinary sense of the term. But Melik Malkasian is a likable center throughout; he knows what to do with a good line when he gets one, and when he doesn't, he is not above resorting to making his hair look funny. The liveliest sequence details his night out with an insanely affable stoner (Michael Fetters) who might have wandered over from Smiley Face. And anyway, when's the last time you saw a comedy that included a credit to Ron Jeremy for "technical advisor"?
