Beat

Based on Gary Walkow's sixth novel

Dick Kendred (Tom Villard) is a frustrated writer whose latest book has been turned down by every publisher around. His work seems to be missing one key ingredient: half-nude chicks. In an effort to cure his writer's block (and get some much needed inspiration), Dick rents a room from a couple of women who waste no time hitting on him. Talk about invoking the muse! This lighthearted romp won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Mary (Kate Lyn Sheil) lives alone. She is waiting for something to happen in her life. Riding the elevator to work, a strange man, Hayward, grabs her shoulder and speaks to her telepathically. “Do you believe in magic?” This triggers a nervous breakdown. After a visit to the emergency room, Mary goes to stay at her sister’s house, and goes into therapy. Mary can now hear people’s thoughts, and she starts hearing music that seems to be broadcast from her mind. Adapted by Gary Walkow from his novel of the same name.

Adapted from Dostoevsky's novella, Henry Czerny plays the narrator, Underground Man. Filled with self-hatred, he keeps a video diary where he discusses his own shortcomings and what he thinks is wrong in contemporary society. His bitterness spills over at a dinner party attended by his old college friends, an occasion which sends him running to a nearby brothel, where he meets Liza (Lee), a young prostitute.

It sounds like a budding writer's dream: a bestselling first novel, a luxurious house in Malibu, and a trophy wife... But it all unravels when writer's block and a failed marriage send Richard McMurray out into the streets.

Gary Walkow shot this film in 1977 and completed it in 1978. In the August 1979 issue of "American Cinematographer" Tom Frei wrote an article "Moving Camera Shots inside a Moving Automobile." The entire film was shot inside of a Oldsmobile Starfire. Gary looped the entire soundtrack but now feels it would have been much better using the production sound. Oh, well.