No gag is too broad, too idiotic or doesn’t make enough sense for this ri-goddamn-diculous rock ‘n’ roll comedy from the neon-lit and hairspray-scented bowels of the early 1980s. It’s the best New Year’s Eve movie ever made. It also features the greatest use of Lou Reed in a comedic acting role and has the finest talking penis scene ever filmed in Los Angeles.
The whole movie is a party and you’re hanging out watching Daniel Stern lust after a honey-sweet Gail Edwards and seeing Malcolm McDowell ham it up as a glam rock star (his name: Reggie Wanker) who flashes his crotch bulge like it’s an award he won and who plays the big holiday show at a beleaguered theater. It’s THE hidden masterpiece from director Allan Arkush, who also made Hollywood Boulevard and Rock ‘n’ Roll High School . Arkush threw every audacious trick he had into this, only to see it go over like the Hindenburg commercially. As of this writing (January 2014), it’s still never been released in any format developed after the Reagan Administration (due to some of the slimeballs behind the scenes, for whom the film was a write-off that they didn’t promote and seemed to want to fail) and remains a coveted treasure of the weird VHS tape cult.