The Queen of Hollywood Blvd

The titular Queen of the titty-bar, wizened beyond her years, Mary weaves an eccentric path through the day of her 60th birthday; a day on which she will revisit the past, engage the present, and reflect on the future. Taking its aesthetic and cinematographic queues from 60s and 70s (X)ploitation films, Queen of Hollywood Blvd maintains a coherent style, meandering through familiar and sleazy genre-appropriate tropes, imagery and lines at a syncopated but languorous pace.

Whilst derivative, it maintains interest throughout its run-time, chiefly through the colour and texture of its main character, and that of its key supporting cast. The film's greatest asset is also its greatest weakness; Rosemary Hochschild's Queen Mary is given to moments of uneven delivery, more like momentary character-drops than revealing idiosyncrasies. This issue, which could have been recovered in the editing suite, as well as the similarly easily-remedied (and brief) problems with overall cinematic cadence, is where Queen of Hollywood Blvd loses points. Pulp Fiction this film is not, but TQoHB is still an entertaining ride worth your time, if you have some to spare.