"Do you hear it, BJ? Do you hear me throw this piece of junk against my bedroom wall and hear it shatter?" This movie is not only the most awful movie that I have ever seen, it makes no sense at all whatsoever!! Why in the world is a Hollywood legend like Mickey Rooney even playing such a senseless character as BJ Lang? And playing Carlotta is an anorexic strung out washed out actress that he keeps as his prisoner hidden in his dorm of props. The whole movie is just hilariously funny and makes me wonder why in the world did anybody even make this movie at all? Was he that desperate that he had nothing else to do with his life and no more roles to play that he had to play this god awful character? The whole movie centers on BJ Lang a hopeless Hollywood makeup artist (and judging from his own makeup artwork on his own face I fear what the people looked like that he made up)kidnaps an actress and ties her to a wheelchair and starves her as he makes her recite lines from different plays that he directs. He goes through the movie barking out orders to an unseen crew, mops the floor as he sings "The Chatanooga Choo-Choo" (oh God that was hilarious!!), puts on fake heart attacks and chases his prisoner through the theater through rooms of costumes, mannequins and props. The movie dragged on as he endlessly recites poems and rehearsals with Carlotta, the camera zooms in and out as crazy 60's acid trip music plays on and on throughout the movie, flashbacks keep coming back as Carlotta stares at the only sane guy in the movie which is the janitor that ends up being the only death in this movie. And it just gets worse. But I guess that there is something to think about in this movie, as awful as it is, it makes you think of people that act like something that their not and the manipulation that they place upon people in order to gain the approval of who they want to be.
Review of The Manipulator
