Without You I'm Nothing

More of a pop video than a movie, this is the film version of outrageous comedienne Sandra Bernhard's off-Broadway show. Her pastiche of the Hollywood dream is a hilarious hit parade of tormented lesbian lullabies, awesomely bad '70s go-go girl costumes, and 'in your face' sexual politics. Bernhard, the original wide-mouthed frog, shimmies her way through a star-spangled show: an anorexic, Madonna-style strippergram one minute and a bad-assed impression of a 'sexpert' in the mould of Dr Ruth the next. She turns the old soul classic 'Me and Mrs Jones' into a sexually ambiguous anthem, and she kidnaps Prince's 'Little Red Corvette', transforming it into a bump-and-grind strip show. She also sends up her own life, from growing up in Michigan to revealing a hidden yearning to be a Gentile on Christmas Day. This is sure to catapult Bernhard (best known previously as the crazed groupie in King of Comedy) into the mainstream as a performer; whether the mainstream is ready for her is another matter.