Play Boy

An experimental film spliced together from the detritus of early 1980s Times Square’s porn and pawn shops, Tessa Hughes-Freeland’s ‘Play Boy’ (1984) feels gritty, sensorial, and hypnotic. A figurative and psychedelic experimentation with film language and voyeurism, the film offers a unique take on transgressive cinema. ‘Play Boy’ uniquely demonstrates that a film does not need to be excessive or exaggerated to be transgressive. Here, conflict and violation of social code does not come from shock tactics, but instead from clever and disruptive collage.