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Man of the Year
- Director: Dirk Shafer
- Writer: Dirk Shafer
- Producer: Simon Bowler; Jeff Collins
CGiii Comment
It starts off so well - albeit unconvincingly.
The actors are obviously actors working from a script - which isn't the point of a mockumentary - if you are taken in from the start then you really should see a therapist - but, it may be too late.
The engaging little comedy then peters off into trite sentimentality - really, the whole AIDS storyline is totally unnecessary and too far from the initial intention.
Shafer does come across as a likeable chap, a little dim perhaps.
He had his brief brush with fame. And, with his clothes on - he rapidly returned back to oblivion.
No trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Mockumentary look at Playgirl Magazine centerfold and 1992 Man of the Year, Dirk Shafer, who kept it a secret from the magazine that he is gay. Most of the film is a fictionalized retelling of Dirk's decision to send a photograph to Playgirl, his selection as a centerfold and then Man of the Year, his many TV interviews, his friend Vivian Paxton posing as his beard, and the pressures from his live-in lover to come out of the closet. Interspersed with this chronological narrative are a black and white look at an evening Dirk spends with Angela Lucassey, a woman from Reno who wins Playgirl's national contest to have a date with Dirk, and an interview with a stripper who tracks Dirk down.
Cast & Characters
Vivian Paxton as Herself;
Claudette Sutherland as Tammy Shafer;
Michael Marisi Ornstein as Mike Miller;
Cal Bartlett as Ken Shafer;
Mary Stein as Angela Lucassey;
Dirk Shafer as Himself;
Beth Broderick as Kelly Bound;
Cynthia Szigeti as Betty Levy;
Dennis Bailey as Howie Diadone;
Charles Sloane as Ed, the Photographer;
Patricia Domiano as Ballroom Dancer;
Dawn Christie as Woman Exercising;
Phyllis Franklin as Dr. Marsha Demarky;
Bill Brochtrup as Pledge Cartwright;
Lu Leonard as Dee Dee Sweatman