Meet Monica Velour Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Meet Monica Velour Blu-ray Movie Review

Meet a movie with unrealized potential.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 17, 2011

She's sweet, beautiful, totally sexy, confident.

Meet Monica Velour aspires to be the next hipster quirky real-life "in movie" in the tradition of Napoleon Dynamite and Juno. Unfortunately, it falls well short of that goal. It's not that the picture is necessarily bad, its potential just isn't fully realized. It seems content to take a lanky, nerdy, curly-haired Napoleon Dynamite-inspired "hero" character and give him the task of pursuing his dreams of meeting and -- maybe more -- a washed up porn actress rather than follow his exploits in a decades-behind-the-times small Western town. The picture aims for subtle and witty rather than slapstick in its humor and real emotion-driven tenderness rather than clumsy faux drama, but it achieves neither in any sort of quantity to make the movie as good as it wants to be. This is a well-meaning, "no harm, no foul," watch-and-forget sort of picture; still, it's certainly worth a watch given that something like Youth in Revolt meets life-after-the-pornography-business sounds appealing.

Washed up.

Recent high school graduate Tobe (Dustin Ingram) has been given the gift every 17-year-old wants: his own hotdog van. Despite his father's (Brian Dennehy) best intentions, Tobe dreams of bigger and better things for his life than making a few bucks selling bottom-barrel food all day long, like tracking down some of the last few movies and memorabilia items he has yet to acquire that feature his all-time favorite porn actress, Monica Velour. He puts the van up for sale on the Internet and soon gets a call from an Indiana native named Claude (Keith David) who wants to buy it, but only if Tobe can deliver it. It seems he'll be stuck with the humiliating vehicle a little while longer -- until fate comes calling. Monica's website has been updated to let her fans know that she'll be appearing at a risque gentleman's club in -- where else -- Indiana. Tobe sets out in the van for the Hoosier state, and sure enough, there's the aged and sagging Monica (Kim Cattrall) up on stage, dancing to a near-empty house and taking a heckling from a group of half-drunk frat house boys who don't know a living legend when they see one. Tobe stands up for his idol and gets a bloodied lip for his troubles, but he also gets something he never dreamed: personal time with Monica in her own home. Can Tobe create a viable relationship with his idol, or will she just thank him for coming, give him an autograph and a peck on the cheek, and send him on his way?

Of all the people to obsess over, learn every last little detail bout, collect every piece of memorabilia centered on, and memorize every movie appeared in...that person is a porn star? Different strokes for different folks, and that trite little catchphrase is an apt descriptor of Meet Monica Velour. The picture works, in a way, as a depiction of a lifelong fantasy realized, a feel-good sort where everything works out in the end, even if it doesn't quite work out as the mind always envisioned. Still, audiences might find the plot specifics a bit hard to grasp; what's with the obsession over an aging porn star, particularly once the hero discovers she's not still as shapely and inviting as she once was, living in trailer park rather than waiting to be rescued by her biggest fan in a castle turret? Who can understand the inner-workings of a teenage mind, and one housed in a gangly virginal body at that? Meet Monica Velour ultimately seems to be about the clash between depicted and actual reality; it nobly attempts to let its audience in on the well-known but widely-ignored secret that says things aren't always as they appear and life never quite works out the way it does in the perfect imaginary world most people create, whether that world involves landing that perfect job, living in that beautiful dream home, or meeting that glamorous actress who seems to have it all while "doing" her thing on-screen.

While the idea is sound, then, the picture never quite works. The plot is based on contrivance and coincidence, great fortune and only a few self-made breaks. That's not to sell short the picture's almost fantastical, destiny-driven plot. There's certainly some magic involved -- necessarily so -- but the film never finds the right balance between fantasy and reality, though there's no doubt it desperately tries. It's always a little off-kilter, incapable of actually proving much of anything, whether the power of determination or the viability of dumb luck. Additionally, the "road trip" elements don't add much to the equation, either; while there's the expected self-discovery angle, there's no sense of audience fulfillment in having experienced either the character arcs or sharing in the value of learning by the themes that run throughout the movie. The script doesn't help matters, either. Dustin Ingram and Kim Cattrall are fair in their roles -- they find as much meaning and value in the roles as they can muster from what they have to work with -- but absent from their performances and the film as a whole are the subtleties that might truly shape a superior picture. Despite its best efforts to the contrary -- a few tender moments, self-realization, dream fulfillment, the harsh encounters with reality -- the film is painted with broad strokes and features almost not light accents that might have made this a more satisfying journey. As it is, Meet Monica Velour plays like a movie of missed potential, one that takes the recycled idea of discovery and the truths of reality, puts a slightly different spin on it, and calls it a day. The film could have been more, but it's too rough around the edges as-is.

Meet Monica Velour Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Anchor Bay's 1080p, 1.78:1-framed Blu-ray release of Meet Monica Velour looks quite good. Though the color palette tends towards the warm end of the spectrum, the image still sparkles with an incredibly vibrant array of hues, whether velvety red curtains, lush green grasses, or the faded blue paint job on the hot dog van. Fine detailing is rock-solid, too. everything from paved roads to the smallest little rust spots, dings, dents, and scratches on that beat up old van stand out nicely, as do the usual suspects: faces and clothes. The image is crisp and remains so even at a distance. Softness is never an issue, and an extremely light grain structure helps the image along. Black levels are strong, and facial hues reflect the subtle warmth evident in the rest of the film. There's no evidence of unwanted banding, blocking, or anything of the sort. This is a high quality image from Anchor Bay.

Meet Monica Velour Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Meet Monica Velour features a fairly routine Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. It delivers a consistent, quality listen that handles the film's somewhat limited audio with ease. Music delivery is fair, playing evenly across the front and with a subtle back channel and low end support. Whether heavyweight beats or lighter, easy-on-the-ears fare, Anchor Bay's track never misses a beat. Atmospherics are delivered with a fairly involved, realistic sensation as well; the track utilizes the entire soundstage in delivering a healthy assortment of environment-specific sound effects. Rounded out by faultless dialogue reproduction, this successful track delivers the entire Meet Monica Velour sound experience with no real problems of note.

Meet Monica Velour Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Meet Monica Velour features a trio of supplements, chief amongst them an audio commentary track.

• Audio Commentary: Writer/Director Keith Bearden and Actress Kim Cattrall discuss the picture originally entitled Miss January. This is an enjoyable, breezy commentary. The two participants share an obvious chemistry together and seem genuinely pleased to share their thoughts on the film. It's an honest track; they discuss the frigid relationship between Bearden and Brian Dennehy, filming the picture chronologically and the improvements in the shoot along the way, the budget constraints, filming the porn movie scenes, technical aspects of the general shoot, the performances of the cast, and more. The track is vastly superior to the movie and adds quite a bit to it. Definitely check this one out.
• Deleted Scenes (480p, 7:53): Monica and Tobe, Caveman Opening, Tobe's Dream, and Tobe and Pop Pop.
• Meet Monica Velour Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:22).

Meet Monica Velour Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Meet Monica Velour has the potential to be something better than average, but the film seems content to settle for second-best. It lacks the richness and meaning it might have otherwise enjoyed had the whole thing been a little better developed. It seems a bit rushed, and it loses its emotional undercurrent as it steamrolls towards getting itself to where it wants to be without paying any attention to how it gets there. The performances are fine -- including a nice little supporting part by the ultra-reliable Keith David as a makeshift sage of sorts -- and the direction is steady, but Meet Monica Velour never really finds its true purpose or sense of originality, banking pretty much only on its "porn star" angle to get it across the finish line. Anchor Bay has churned out another dependable Blu-ray release with Meet Monica Velour. Packing a strong 1080p transfer, a quality lossless soundtrack, and a couple of extras including a very enjoyable commentary track, the presentation is as-exepcted but the movie itself just isn't quite there. Recommended as a fairly strong rental candidate.