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This "mocumentary" by Dirk Shafer, an actor-model turned filmmaker, is a witty and articulate blend of fact and fiction surrounding his 1992 reign as
Playgirl magazine's Centerfold of the Year. He amusingly blurs the line between fact and satire by mixing badly shot black-and-white scenes with more sleekly produced color interviews and documentary footage. Shafer smartly keeps the fluff to a manageable level by balancing all that facetious humor with a sweetly mysterious undertone. However, this is very much a vanity affair, so expect a high level of self-indulgence as Shafer tells us more about himself than we really care to know.
--Rochelle O'Gorman
An engaging mock documentary by Dirk Shafer, a gay hunk who passed for straight as
Playgirl's 1992 Man of the Year. As the American woman's ideal man, he was booked constantly on TV talk shows-there are funny clips from "The Phil Donahue Show," the "Joan Rivers Show," and several others. The rest of the movie re-creates episodes from the big year (a nude shoot, a date with the winner of a
Playgirl contest), keeping condescension at bay with some nice comic spins. The movie falters toward the end, when Shafer portrays a friend's death from AIDS, rather self-servingly, as the wake-up call that convinced him to out himself. But on the whole this lighthearted critique of the closet succeeds by treating absurd situations with a knowing smile. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006
The New Yorker
