For the longest time, I never understood why festivals screened older movies in their lineups. It always seemed odd to me that a festival would take up screentime with something that came out 40 or 50 years before rather than screening something new. But I started to get it as the years went on. Many times a festival screens a previously-lost-to-time 70s film, or an actual deep-cut 80s film (not like when someone on Twitter says a film is a deep cut and it’s just Pieces). While I love getting the chance to scope out new and upcoming talent, as well as voices in the industry I have not yet heard of, I’ve come to really enjoy when festivals throw a few unknown/hard-to-find older films in their lineup. After watching Hollywood 90028, I understand entirely why Final Girls Berlin Film Festival threw this 1973 film in their lineup.
Hollywood 90028 follows Mark (Christopher Augustine), a young photographer implanted in Los Angeles from the rural midwest. His goal of becoming a cinematographer diminishes day by day as his job as a porn filmmaker slowly breaks his spirit. Mark is somewhat socially inept and sexually frustrated, which doesn’t help him emotionally one bit. On top of his traumatic past, Mark longs for a connection he can’t fulfill. He soon meets Michelle (Jeannette Dilger) during a shoot, and the two become closer by the day. But Mark’s violent past starts to creep up in ways no one could possibly imagine.
Writer/director Christina Hornisher’s directorial debut (and only feature) really caught me off guard. This is one of the handful of times I’ve watched a film for a festival twice in a row. I started to get a bit frustrated during my first viewing–it seemed too tame…too clean for its subject matter. As the final long shot lingered on and the camera pulled back (for what seemed like minutes), I finally understood. Hornisher wasn’t making a film to serve as a singular rebuke for the porn industry (not entirely) or as a singular middle finger to the idea of capitalism. Hollywood 90028 feels like a counter-culture examination of a frustrating and scary time for the youth of America. Serial killers were becoming ever prevalent in the 70s, porn was on the rise, and the US was involved in two terrifying wars.
From the information I was able to gather about Hornisher, and that’s very little, this film was made shortly after she graduated from UCLA. Much of the dialogue in Hollywood feels very post-film school–long monologues on gentrification and urbanization that don’t seem to fit, monologues about capitalism, and the ouroboros-like nature of the porn/entertainment industry. Hollywood is really two films in one. It’s the cyclical nature of the world we live in and a blunt look at the nature of true evil.
Mark’s character is a fascinating case study of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Hornisher’s writing is unique in that it’s too talky when it doesn’t need to be while utilizing silence and visual storytelling when necessary. We are introduced to Mark’s tragic childhood in the opening credits through a montage of photos from his childhood. We see him as a child with his family–he is the only boy. The photos show him being singled out by the women in his life until his mother has another kid, a boy. A series of photos eventually reveals that Mark was the cause of his brother’s untimely death. His childhood clearly affected his life as he simply cannot be intimate with a woman.
While Mark’s childhood is tragic, the film doesn’t paint him out to be a victim, AND it also doesn’t diminish the pain he went through. But Hornisher also makes it clear that just because someone seems like a nice unsuspecting guy, doesn’t mean he isn’t capable of cold-blooded murder. Mark is a portrait of a true serial killer, and it’s impressive how Hornisher crafts the character.
Hollywood 90028 is an impressive debut, and it makes me sad that Christina Hornisher didn’t continue her career. It’s clear she had a unique vision that perfectly (and sometimes bluntly) blended horror and politics. It makes me sad to think what could have been. But if her story isn’t one of the main points of Hollywood 90028, then what is?