21st Century porn audiences have been brain-washed by the endless stream of "parodies", not only financially successful but even improbably winning awards left and right (that makes me feel like I've wandered into a parallel universe, one where folks have lost their senses and might even consider Donald Trump as presidential timber).
"Blow Dry" is a very early example of this junk, and is simply not amusing enough or erotic enough to defeat the inherent weaknesses of mock filmmaking. Warren Beatty in "Shampoo" was a cultural phenomenon -not revolutionizing Hollywood as "Easy Rider" did but certainly a key snapshot of the society at the time, at least Rodeo Drive division. This porn response unwisely set in New York never rises to the level of creating its own identity -like the thousands of recent XXX ripoffs of mainstream intellectual properties it exists only in relation to the original.
Casting unknown "Pepe" in the very big lead role is the first mistake. The fact that decades later he was able to carve out a mainstream film career using his real name in bit parts and small roles merely proves that it is possible to overcome the stigma against porn. But his overacted performance as an oversexed hairdresser here cannot carry the weight of the movie. Jamie Gillis is more fun as a gay colleague, but of course the gay sex is strictly off-screen as this is mainstream porn.
With many familiar NYC performers picking up the slack, like Helen Madigan, R. Bolla and an over-the-top Ultramax, farce ultimately devolves into a slapstick orgy at Ultramax's mansion. Decision to go for a Mack Sennet type of humor was unwise.
On the DVD reissue, I tried to listen to the self-serving audio commentary by co- star R. Bolla, but it was pure drivel. There is much to criticize about the young revisionists who currently write about the '60s Softcore films and Golden Age hardcore ones that followed, but many of the surviving practitioners who were on the scene (Bolla, Margold, Ron Jeremy most obviously) look back at it through such rosy-colored glasses as to be extremely unreliable.
