This is another one from the Too Cool For School Collection. I've lost count of how many of these I've watched. They're starting to blur together into a smear of boobs, bad ADR, drum machines beats and more boobs. I'm not complaining.
This collection of shit films, which I initially derided after only seeing one movie, has since proved pretty damn reliable. Tomboy is yet another gem, not quite as terrible as the others, that has me regretting my pre-adolescent reliance on the Porky's series for my boobs shots. Defunct Crown International, the b-movie house that is responsible for the treats in this collection (or abominations, however you want to see it) seemed to have a simple mandate that they followed religiously: fulfill the torrid fantasies of teenaged boys. Coach is about fucking your hot gym teacher. My Tutor is about fucking your hot French tutor. And the particular fantasy realized in Tomboy is that of the hot girl who doesn't know she's hot and who likes cars and racing and cool shit. And you see her boobs a bunch of times.
Betsy Russell plays Tommy the Tomboy and despite her stilted, awkward acting, she is a fairly charming character that keeps you watching. She is a mechanic that constantly blows peoples minds with her chickness, eliciting "b-b-but you're a girl!" responses from the guys that cross her path. She's into race cars and rebuilding engines and doesn't much care for the fancy clothes or girly stuff that her friend Seville is into. Seville is a girly-girl wannabe dancer and her lascivious dance routines are some of the funniest moments in the movie. In fact, Seville is so girly and Tommy such a tomboy that you wonder what at all they have in common and why they're such good friends.
There's a sweetness about Tommy that makes you want to see her win the big race and get the guy. The guy in question is Randy Starr, a race car driving local celebrity. Tommy has his poster hanging over her work bench and she stares at it dreamily. When Ryan shows up at the shop one day with his drunken silver-spoon promoter (played by Eric Douglas, Michael's sleazier younger brother, wait, maybe not sleazier) sparks fly between him and Tommy. She worships his skills on the tracks, but acts as if she's uninterested in men romantically. This doesn't last long before Tommy and Randy become lovey-dovey in a series of hilarious montages that show them dirt-biking, wrestling and sliding down water slides.
There isn't much conflict in the movie until late in the story when Tommy and Randy get challenged to race each other to see who has the better car and who is the better driver. Of course, Tommy beats Randy
Apparently Russell was in the 80's trash flick Avenging Angel which I continuously passed over in my youth. In it she plays a former prostitute who is pulled back to the streets to take vengeance on a gang. I have to see this movie because I can't even imagine Besty Russell as a badass wielding a switchblade. Actually, fuck it, I don't have to imagine it thanks to Youtube.
Yeah, gotta see that.
The weird thing I couldn't figure out about Tomboy is who exactly this movie was directed at. The two main characters are girls, which usually suggests a female-driven picture. Their struggles to get taken seriously, their attempts at finding love and their eventual triumphs over adversity and narrow-minded attitudes all suggest this was meant to be an empowering movie for teenaged girls. Except both Tommy and Seville are constantly taking their clothes off, Seville in particular. At one point in the middle of a party, for no apparent reason she strips down to her panties and does a skanky dance with a room full of middle-aged businessmen cheering her on. Like I said, I was confused about the tone slightly. This would be like the girls of The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants occasionally taking showers together while talking about their strong emotional bonds.
The constant stream of boobs and the fact that Tommy seems like a character straight of a wet dream steer me toward thinking this movie was directed at boys exclusively, like the rest of the Crown International pictures I've seen. Ultimately, I can't really call it either way. Maybe its a weird hybrid picture that's intended to make girls feel like they can do anything while simultaneously giving boys boners.
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