Inserts

The characters in "Inserts" have been given names that are meant to sell. A once-famous silent film director -- now he's directing pornography from his own mansion -- is dubbed Boy Wonder (Richard Dreyfuss). The peppy actor who abuses women in those films is Rex the Wonder Dog (Stephen Davies). The franchising entrepreneur who funds their low-rent operation is Big Mac (Bob Hoskins), and his wannabe-starlet girlfriend is Cathy Cake (Jessica Harper). Once they were human beings, but the movie business has a habit of turning people into brands. And these brands are going bankrupt.

"Inserts" is written and directed by John Byrum, who shuffles characters on and off his stage as quickly as a flop can kill a career. After a contemporary prologue, he locks us into Boy Wonder's mansion circa a bad day in 1930. Harlene (Veronica Cartwright) is set to shoot a rough sex scene in the next few moments, but she's shooting up in the moments before that.

She's the first to shuffle off, around the same time that Big Mac enters, offering Rex promises of stardom and entrusting Cathy to his now-shorthanded director. Every rung of the film industry is represented, with the pointed exception of the successful classes. There are actors on the way up and on the way down, a producer who's fixated on the middle, and a director who has taken a ride from the top to the bottom. There's one more character, but he stays offscreen: A young Clark Gable is heard literally knocking at the door, from the greener pastures of the outside world. Some of these characters still think they can rehabilitate themselves, but Byrum is never even going to let them get outside.

Twilight Time's Blu-ray release of the film features a beautifully filmic transfer of "Inserts," with both the movie and the movie-within-the-movie characterized by soft tones and grainy photographic textures. Also included on the disc is a theatrical trailer from the original release, and an isolated music and sound effects audio track. (Although the film plays out almost entirely under the voices of its characters, comparisons were made to stage plays in many reviews, and it's hard to deny that "Inserts" sounds like one.)

Rounding out the release is a booklet featuring an essay by Julie Kirgo, who details the film's initial non-release and its resulting obscurity, while simultaneously critiquing the way that "Inserts" plays fast and loose with the facts of Hollywood history.

That's something that reviews from its initial release also harped on: Critics noted that silent film directors didn't actually struggle during the transition into sound cinema (that conflict was reserved for performers), and that someone like Clark Gable wouldn't be going door to door in search of forgotten idols (he was hardly what we'd call a cinephile). These are valid suggestions. But they also presume that the subject of "Inserts" is specific to its era, when you could actually find that downtrodden mansion in any given decade. That's another thing about Boy Wonder not having a real name. Consider it a constant reminder that every era of film history left its boy and girl wonders behind once their persona-slash-product couldn't sell any more tickets.

Byrum composes the frames so that his characters are as still as their careers. Boy sits at his piano, or Harlene on her couch, and they look like they're living in physical stasis. It may be true that "Inserts" gets some of the details wrong, but it gets the emotions of being an expired product exactly right.

"Inserts"
Blu-ray
$29.95
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