Wayne, a struggling method actor, inherits the city's last porno cinema from his estranged father Al. Seeing this as an unconventional opportunity to reconcile their relationship, Wayne absorbs himself in the underworld of the pornography business. While running the cinema Wayne meets a cast of characters including Ralf, a slimy business partner of Al's, James, a young man with special needs employed by Al, and Athar, a young boy who lives in the upstairs apartments. Each character acts as a piece of a puzzle in helping Wayne rediscover the father he barely knew. But the old cinema turns out to be much more than Wayne anticipated. Between the community's pressure to have it closed and the antics of the devoted patrons, unresolved traumatic experiences from his youth bubble their way to the surface and begin to paint a clearer picture of Al. Landing his first lead role in a film, Wayne can't help but recognize the similarities between this fictional character and his father. Wayne slowly takes on Al's persona in preparation of filming, but begins to lose his own identity in the process and eventually his grasp on reality. As Wayne lives and breathes everything Al, he finds himself in a much darker place than anything he ever could have imagined. No longer just a character study, Wayne painfully reconstructs his traumatic experiences using Athar in the role of himself as a child. But Wayne goes too far and ends up on the wrong side of his memory. It's only then that he realizes the errors of his ways. He must now find reconcilement with the people he has affected along the way. In a final act of closure, Wayne decides to close the porno cinema and embrace his own identity.
An aspiring method actor inherits his estranged father’s porno theatre in The Last Porno Show. Wayne (Nathanael Chadwick) is a struggling actor, who discovers with much apathy that his estranged father Al (Christian Aldo) has passed away and has left Wayne his rundown porno theatre. Initially set on quickly selling off the theatre, Wayne becomes acquainted with Al’s business partner Ralf (Brian Scott Carleton) and ex-lover Julia (Mickey Skin), which causes repressed memories from Wayne’s childhood to surface. When a prospective film role requires unsimulated sex scenes with his co-star Ashley (Victoria Dunsmore), Wayne decides to reopen the theatre in order to try to live in his father’s shoes and get into the right headspace for his character.
The Last Porno Show is a dark comedy from writer/director Kire Paputts (The Rainbow Kid), which follows a struggling method actor trying to get into the headspace of his late father. Thanks to his acting classes, taught by a cameoing Frank D’Angelo, Wayne decides to revisit the traumatic memories of his childhood to develop a character for a sleazy new film role. However, it isn’t long until Wayne’s journey into the adult cinema business turns into a full-on obsession.
From the opening moments of The Last Porno Show, it becomes very apparent that Kire Paputts has made a dark comedy that isn’t afraid to explore the seedy pornography world in explicit detail. While the film is quite uncomfortable to watch at times, particularly in the latter half, I would say that The Last Porno Show is ultimately about a man trying to reconcile his issues about his father. While the explicit sexual content doesn’t make this a film for everyone, The Last Porno Show still overall makes for an interesting character study.
TIFF19 screenings of The Last Porno Show
- Tuesday, September 10, 9:00 PM – Scotiabank Theatre
- Thursday, September 12, 9:00 PM – Jackman Hall (AGO)
- Friday, September 13, 3:30 PM – Scotiabank Theatre