Inserts

1975

Inserts

Critics Consensus

No consensus yet.

78%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 9

57%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 604
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Movie Info

Writer/director John Byrum filmed this bizarre and controversial period picture on one massive set. It takes place in the 1930s, and stars Richard Dreyfuss as Boy Wonder, a once-great Hollywood director, who spends all of his time in decrepitude in his rococo mansion (which will soon be leveled and replaced by a major highway), half-soused, unshaven and clad in his bathrobe and pajamas. Instead of shooting major Hollywood pictures, this impotent has-been is now reduced to shooting pornographic films with a heroin-addled actress, Harlene (Veronica Cartwright) and a moronic leading man, Rex (Stephen Davies). Rex's employer, the financier Big Mac (Bob Hoskins) turns up, bringing along his shy and dim-bulb fiancee, Cathy Cake (Jessica Harper), whom he treats condescendingly but hopes to launch to megastardom as a movie actress. When Harlene overdoses, Rex and Big Mac haggle over her body. Mac then leaves Cathy with Boy Wonder, who tells the burned-out director that her one dream in life is to appear in movies, and asks if she could pose for insert shots for his next stag film. By shooting the inserts, Boy Wonder manages to regain his potency, but he is completely put off by Cathy, who suddenly realizes, after the fact, that the camera wasn't running. At that point, Big Mac returns and catches them in the filmmaking process. Although he is not really sure what went on, Big Mac vamooses with Boy Wonder's camera and paraphernalia and takes Cathy with him. Meanwhile, an aspiring thesp named Clark Gable turns up at the door, wanting Boy Wonder to direct him. The film's raunchy prologue (set in a present day screening room) features an uncredited vocal cameo by an actor who rocketed to A-list Hollywood stardom in the 1980s. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Cast

Richard Dreyfuss
as Boy Wonder
Jessica Harper
as Cayhy Cake
Stephen Davies
as Rex
Veronica Cartwright
as Harlene
Bob Hoskins
as Big Mac

Critic Reviews for Inserts

All Critics (9) | Top Critics (1) | Fresh (7) | Rotten (2)

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Audience Reviews for Inserts

  • Dec 28, 2012
    "Inserts" is a curious little gem of 70s filmmaking that isn't likable or very good, but it is interesting enough to merit at least a single viewing. Richard Dreyfuss has a wacky, uneven performance as a director of pornographic films that spends his time half-drunk and in solitude. The rest of the cast (which includes Veronica Cartwright, Stephen Davies, Bob Hoskins and Jessica Harper) is pretty uneven as well and their performances consist of either grand moments or weak moments, excluding Harper, whose performance is actually quite excellent. As for the film itself, it doesn't quite (literally) go anywhere, but at the end, it doesn't feel like a total waste. It's a little eccentric, a little mediocre, a little stagy, but strangely interesting.
    Stephen E Super Reviewer
  • May 06, 2012
    Daring but abrasive, "Inserts" is notable for its casting of well-known faces in a surprisingly explicit film. Also unusual: Minus a prologue that uses unseen extras, this early-'30s period piece has just five credited actors. Most of the drama sits on the twitchy shoulders of Richard Dreyfuss (shortly before "Jaws" launched him to major stardom). Dreyfuss is an unnamed "boy wonder" who directed some silent masterpieces and once clinked glases with the likes of D.W. Griffith, Lillian Gish and Erich Von Stroheim. But after a poorly explained fall from grace, he's now an impotent, ruddy drunk shooting stag reels in his living room. The first act shows him greeting favored actress Harlene (Veronica Cartwright, whose pert sexiness is a sharp contrast to her middle-aged character roles), then choreographing a brutal scene between her and dimwit Rex (Stephen Davies, definitely the weak link). Producer "Big Mac" (a young, trim Bob Hoskins) soon arrives with his fiancee Cathy (Jessica Harper) to watch the proceedings, but an unforeseen catastrophe threatens to sink the half-finished film. However, Cathy is not the naive starlet she appears to be and eventually forces Dreyfuss's character to re-examine his self-defeating cynicism. "Inserts" is rated NC-17 nowadays, and it's easy to see why. Glimpses of Davies' scrotum go well beyond the typical sex scene's limits, and the graphically pounded Cartwright barely avoids what might be called "gatefold" shots. And who would expect to see Dreyfuss licking Harper's stiffened nipples in closeup? It's a legitimately erotic segment. Sharing the screen with Dreyfuss for most of the film's second half, Harper (fresh from a knockout role in "Phantom of the Paradise") ends up stealing the picture from him. It's a brave, sometimes vulgar performance that requires her to be topless for an extended stretch (despite her lacking an ideal set of curves), and her expressive eyes and soulful intelligence make Dreyfuss's kvetchy tantrums and practiced bottle-swigging seem cartoonish in comparison. Unfortunately, "Inserts" fails to pay off and has the weak aftertaste of a one-set play staged as an experimental exercise. A few highly dramatic events pass without satisfying ramifications, and the film just fizzles out at the end.
    Eric B Super Reviewer
  • May 14, 2008
    Terrible mess of a movie, some real talent involved in this misfire but catch them in their much better work.
    jay n Super Reviewer
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