There are not many things I know for certain about this movie, but one thing I do know is that it contains no hippies and no porn. The three central characters are a bunch of disaffected, modern day college kids and their conversations and stimulations tend toward the blue side of life… but hippy porn? I think not. In fact, this 1991 movie uses rather formalist strategies to achieve its goals. These are characters who would feel at home in a Warhol movie or inhabiting a Godard set, though they would be the last ones to admit it. They might stay up all night discussing art with a capital “F,” or they might spend it gazing at the wallpaper. Either way they’d be happy, which is to say they’d be unhappy, because life, they are convinced, is a tedious endeavor filled only with boredom and repetition. In a typical conversation early in the film, one member of this trio declares: “We’re a bunch of spoiled teenagers with nothing better to do than sit around and talk meaningless shit. Let’s face it. All we’ll be doing for the next 75 minutes is smoking, drinking wine and complaining about not having anything to do.” “Doesn’t sound like a half-bad lifestyle,” opines another, which only prompts the first one to retort that “lifestyles are for the middle class. We must make an ideology of sex, cigarettes, wine [or was that whine?] and boredom.” And on it goes. Filmed in grainy black-and-white, Hippy Porn has the look, as well as the sound, of a Sixties durational manifesto though its tone is more self-mocking and reflective. More than anything, Hippy Porn is reminiscent of the recent films of Gregg Araki. And despite its best intentions to suck the audience right up into its tedium and boredom, there are transcendent moments — moments of humor, of insight, of pleasure, of distinction — that rise from the morass, remain with you as reminders that life really can be pretty neat. Hippy Porn is also driven by a Matador Records all-star underground soundtrack featuring artists like Barbara Manning, Unrest, Superchunk, Medicine Ball and others. Being young and pretentious has rarely looked this good.
This article appears in March 20 • 1992 (Cover).
