Faut se les faire!

John Erman's big screen debut explains why he never directed another theatrical release for 2 decades;1990s Stella starring Bette Midler. Making It, a dreadful film, practically dies on screen in the opening scene. The film has no pace, style, tone, atmosphere or rhythm; if feels like a TV sitcom on valium. The main character is played by a young, scrawny, charmless Kris Tabori whose character is merely a set of attitudes rather than a real person. The relationships are notably underdeveloped and unconvincing as are the film's shifts in tone. With a supporting cast made up of clichéd teens and clichéd over 30 failures, the film is neither funny nor dramatically sound. It's an amateurish film on every level. 20th Century Fox should have shelved this one though ultimately they buried it.

I originally wrote a very terse entry, because it is, after all, about what is supposed to be the shortest movie review in New Yorker history. But given the 10-line rule, I'll blather on for a moment.

Perhaps this note will be my incentive to finally buy the CD collection of the entire history of The New Yorker, so that I can look up this review up and see if it is indeed apocryphal, which would be very much in keeping with the author of the novel on which the movie was based. Jim who would do anything to turn out a phrase that rapidly made a point.

In any case, I took a course from James Leigh, who wrote the novel on which "Making It" was based. The novel's name was "What Can You Do?" According to Leigh, the New Yorker review in its entirety was:

"'Making It' was based on the novel 'What Can You Do?' What you can do is not see it."

Based on the theatrical one-sheet and the R-rating, you're expecting a soft-core sexploitationer: you actually end up with a not-so-bad, smart "coming of age" teen dramedy. As it should be: it's written by Peter Bart (for 20th Century Fox), who you known best as the co-host, with film executive Peter Guber, of AMC's film talk and interview programs Shootout and Storymakers, as well as Encore's In the House.

True movieheads known that, after his screenwriting career, Bart was a writer at the New York Times, an Editor-In Chief at Variety, and later a Vice President of Production at Paramount Studios. While serving as the screenwriting debut for Bart, Making It was also the feature film debut for longtime TV director John Erman (Outer Limits, My Favorite Martian, Star Trek: TOS); continuing with TV series, Erman directed numerous TV movies into the early-2000s.

While Sherry Miles is what brought us (well, moi) here: we're also captivated by a cast that features early roles for the familiar Bob Balaban, David Doyle (yep, Bosley from TV's Charlie's Angels), character actor extraordinaire John Fiedler, Denny Miller, Lawrence Pressman, and Tom Troupe, along with the brother-sister thespian duo of Dick and Joyce Van Patten.

Based on the '60s best-seller, What Can You Do?, a very young Kristoffer Tabori (later of Brave New World and a Star Wars video game voice artist) stars as Phil Fuller: a 17-year-old ne'er-do-well clone of David Cassidy (who would have been perfect in the "grown up" role) living with his widowed mother (Joyce Van Patten). He quenches his self-centered needs by using the girls in his school (prom queen, Sherry Miles), his nerdy best friend (a very young Bob Balaban), and his basketball coach (Denny Miller) -- by taking up with his wife (Marlyn Mason). Meanwhile, Joyce Van has or own sexual issues: she's facing the thoughts of an abortion after shacking up with an insurance agent (played by her brother!). Then Phil deals with the issues of abortion when he gets one of his high school-conquests, pregnant.

In the end, what you get in the frames of Making It is not a sexploitation comedy, or even a "coming of age" dramedy, but an insightful examination of a pre-Roe vs. Wade world regarding the legalities surrounding abortions (then illegal in California, where this takes place, but legal in New York, where Patten's character considers going to get one).

It's pretty heavy stuff of a time and place, but without the favorable atmosphere of Fast Times of Ridgemont High -- if that film centered on Mike Damone knocking up Stacy Hamilton.

I had absolutely NO IDEA as to what to expect from this film, but I ended up pleasantly surprised. Much of the film is uneven, to be sure, but several fun moments and a strong performance from Kristoffer Tabori kept me interested. Then, towards the end, the film suddenly made a sharp turn towards drama, and yet it did not seem out of place. In fact, it was most certainly a memorable finale, as well as the best part of the movie. I suppose this film did get a little too silly at times, but the hit-and-miss comedy and superb dramatic conclusion make it well worth your time.

I recall seeing this movie when I was in the 9th grade when my best buddy and I went to a free showing. I liked the movie and actually went back and paid to see it a second time because I was fascinated by the character played by Kristoffer Tabori. I saw the movie again a few years later, in the late 70's, when it showed up at my college campus theater. The movie has it's comic moments, as well as some serious moments. In some ways the story was a bit ahead of it's time and is quite enjoyable to watch. I have been trying to find information regarding this movie for along time and finally tracked it down by coming across the actors name (Kristoffer Tabori). Does anyone know if it is available on VHS or DVD?