The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 77

ir- 'ks- WEEKEND MOVIES i i i i i i i i Without You is weird but funny antics spoof censorship MANY FACES: John Boskovich left directed Sandra multipersonality Without You MOVIE REVIEW WITHOUT YOU NOTHING (R) Cast: Sandra Bernhard John Doe Steve Antin Lu Leonard Ken Foree Cynthia Bailey Director: John Boskovich Producer: Jonathan Krane Screenwriters: Sandra Bernhard John Boskovich Cinematographer: Joseph Yacoe Music: Patrice Rushen A New Line Cinema release Running time: 89 minutes Profanity nudity adult I i i i i i i By RYAN MURPHY Herald Staff Writer The conclusion of Sandra Without You Nothing is one of the rarest strangest film finishes in the history of the medium A weird hybrid of Twin Peaks and Gypsy with a dash of Behind the Green Door thrown in for good measure the no-holds-bared wrap-up features Bernhard undulating before director John camera which zooms in on the multimedia every snap crackle and pop Loofahed to a brilliant sheen plucked of every stray hair and writhing with pure abandonment to the strains of Little Red Corvette Bernhard snarling in a G-string and pasties is conservative Sen Jesse nightmare come to life Exploration of freedom Which is the point not only of the conclusion but of Without You I'm Nothing A deconstructivist comedy of sorts daring in its inception and purposefully self-conscious and aggressive in its delivery the film is a florid exploration of freedom and artistic license More than just a brazen display of flesh exhibitionist go-go dance is a snippet of bold that wildly sums up the tawdry tales that have preceded it and gives a hearty raspberry to the rising tide of conservatism that threatens this supposedly liberal arts an your scene calculated to amuse horrify provoke and spoof the ever-creeping tide of censorship Perhaps as an afterthought we learn one other highly important lesson Sandra has a killer bod Not to mention a vicious wit (which dissects everyone from Madonna to Martika) a riveting screen presence and a nifty singing voice (at one point Bernhard in a Diana Ross pageboy croons Ain No Mountain High Enough to a spectra! Warren Beatty a commentary on rampant idolatry) Based on her one-woman off-Broadway (a self-deprecating direct quote in the film) Without You Nothing is a comedic hodgepodge There is no -plot really just a premise: Bern-hard overcome with her own celebrity and burgeoning fame is sent by her manager (the jolly earnest Lu Leonard) back to a black Los Angeles nightclub to get in touch with her roots where the stoned nightclub ft CHICK 7HFATRF DIRICTORIIS OR CALI FOR SHOWTIWFS announcer like so many of the misinformed consistently refers to her as in store What follows is a melange of comedy skits tributes to such pop culture icons as Andy Warhol Nina Simone and disco big daddy Sylvester musical numbers and cameo appearances by such friends as the charismatic actor Steve Antin who trashes Jodie Foster with glee and tries to put the Sandra phenomenon in perspective Without You Nothing however aims for more than cheap yuks and consistently hits the mark an anti-concert film of sorts (the nightclub audience is shown yawning and rudely talking among themselves) and a socially oriented one at that Bernhard has slowly evolved to become the Ralph Nader of popular culture and her bits of business have a watchdog feel to them Alienation (expressed in the guise of a black alter ego for Bernhard who haunts the film) media misogyny (the infamous Newsweek cover story proclaiming that women older than 30 were doomed to become old maids is explored wittily via a medley of Burt Bacharach tunes) and sexual orientation are sliced and diced with panache and brave bombastic overkill Through sheer theatricality Bernhard cuts through the artifices of pop culture and social mores and painfully hits bone time and time again Without You Nothing always funny too cerebral for that but consistently provocative and disarming a gripping glance at one demons strident opinions and beautifully toned torso pi-feT a CO I NO PASSLS ACCEPTED FOR THIS ENGAGEMENT MOVIES AT PEMBROKE PINES 3SOMOI I -WOPBlvO 435-3700 MOVIES AT THE FALLS IS ISSOUTKWESt 1MTNS1 255-5200 I LE JUENE CINEMA 6 wSFAtEt 529888 SHERIDAN 7 mSH(RF04HS1 HLLWO 987-4680 STARTS TODAY rnt riNFW CUTLER RIDGE HOACruRkRtlM 238-5311 rNnF nwfM RIVIERA SOUS US EMU' 666-8513 CAMPBELL Square 6 At US' CAMPAEllOft 0EKt 0 245-800 OMNI TO WOI BKCAvtC 0LVD Wit rc rjn gaics 358-2304 WESTBIRD 8 227-0276 Get complete coverage of the South Florida business scene in our OCEAN WALK 10 J3JhA(ISONST 920-8330 MARINAS 1741 BiSCAtNt 01 vD 931-2873 HIALEAH 8 4 UI 557-9888 BUSINESSMONDAY tabloid section a -V.