The Manipulator

I would simply state that this movie was less than horrible, but I feel that would be too nice. Basically, I would rather consume rancid lobster than endure this cinematic travesty again. I respect Mickey Rooney as a great American actor and I have enjoyed many of his films but he should definitely abstain himself from any experimentations with abstract art and hallucinogens. I wouldn't recommend this film to the devil himself.

Mickey Rooney lets loose in a strange little film. Rooney plays a deranged makeup man who kidnaps a young woman and then holds her in an old warehouse full of props, forcing her to act in his movie while he drifts in and out of reality.

To say that this two person film is strange is an understatement. Its clear why Rooney agreed to do the film since it lets him do things that he never got to do with Judy Garland or as Andy Hardy. Whats not so clear is why we'd want to watch it since its 90 minutes trapped with a psycho. This isn't to knock Rooney's performance, rather its to praise it since this clearly isn't a guy we want to have over for dinner.

I'm on the fence about this film. I can't really recommend it for any reason other than being able to see Mickey Rooney let go. However if you want to see what else Rooney could do beyond the typical see this movie. Everyone else stay away.

Cinematic travesty is right! This film is rancid and putrid and boring and so God awful! Mickey Rooney plays some mental case that thinks he is making movies back in 1947 in an old props room where he instructs his "actress" Luana Anders in Cyrano De Bergerac. All 90 minutes basically takes place in this "loft" that really looks like nothing more than the backstage of a small theater. Watching this film was excrutiating torture as we get to see Mickey Rooney give the worst performance of his career, as well as Luana Anders! Rooney is barking out orders to stagehands that aren't there one moment, then he is dancing around and singing "Pardon Me Boys, Is That the Chattanooga Choochoo." He is painful to watch as in one scene he wears make-up and looks like a cheap hooker on the Vegas Strip(based on his looks...one real CHEAP hooker to boot!). Most of the time he looks like some maniacal gnome. Some of the scenes even have speeded scenes so we can see him dance about in fast motion no less. Anders is just as bad(at least looks good) as we never really can tell what her motivation is or what she really feels. This is just one real reel bad film. Director Yabo Yablinsky deserves most of the blame as he forfeits plot structure, characterization, pacing, motivation, and all those things that are a part of a good film for nonsense, halluciatory dream sequences that mean absolutely nothing, and odd, repetitive camera angles. Whew! What a stinker! Yabo is one yahoo!!!

Essentially a two-person stage play with the fatally unhinged former make-up man Rooney recreating his favourite motion pictures on an old, abandoned sound stage using abducted actress Anders as his muse. The film conveys her attempts to escape, and Rooney's lunacy as he flits between vague coherency and outright mania. Larry Cohen's impressive set design is eye-catching, although the music tempo is at times so frantic as to become irritating.

I've read a lot of reviews concerning this movie, and the majority seem to charge it with a contempt normally reserved for those films so pathetic, they even fail on cult status. Sure, it's probably a little too avant garde for the average punter (myself included), and yet, it's strangely compelling with a truly maniacal performance by Rooney. If you'd been accustomed to the Mickey Rooney of the 1940's, then you're in for a shock; his turn is quite raw, maybe somewhat self-indulgent (in showcasing his range), but certainly remarkable.

Anders certainly isn't the acting dwarf some have painted, though her dialogue is scarce by comparison, while the once-ubiquitous Keenan Wynn has a brief but memorable cameo, and there are a host of extras that form Rooney's heyday hallucinations (and who look like a theatrical company) - many of them sans costumes in full-frontal glory just to underline the point that Rooney has totally flipped his switch. I almost fell asleep after just ten or so minutes, but persevered and while not a masterpiece, found the overall result intense if at times uneven and probably unfairly maligned as a turkey.

Weird doesn't being to describe this one. Even if you're a fan of bizarre films you're going to have trouble with The Manipulator. Mickey Rooney plays B. J. Lang, a psychopath who is making a film in his own head in an abandoned theatre. He talks to people who aren't there, sees people who aren't there but has a very real woman held captive, whom he forces to play Roxanne in his imaginary film of Cyrano De Bergerac. At some point Keenan Wynn turns up as a tramp. That's the plot.

So, how do you stretch that out to feature length? Well, Rooney basically babbles, screams, dances, sings, rolls about the floor, stares into space, drools, wears a fake nose, wears make up, whispers, talks to dummies, sweeps the floor and plays forward for Manchester Unitied while the film passes by in slow motion, speeded up, flashes subliminal images, changes perspective and even location several times.

There's a ten minute stretch that takes place entirely under a strobe light, which caused me to put off the film for a while to have a break, and another ten minute stretch of people laughing in slow motion while Rooney walks around saying 'love' and holding a baby. Or how about the bit where Rooney rolls about the floor saying 'pills' over and over again? Or the jungle noises? Or the bit where someone goes mental with a moog while Rooney chases that woman about. For about ten minutes. In slow motion.

This film is an endurance test for the viewer and although I'm not sure what the point of it all was, I'd pretty much reserve this film for folks who think they've seen it all, just to see their jaws drop. It's by no means a good film, but it's too weird to hate either. I wonder what Rooney thinks of it (yep, he's still alive…189 years young).