75
Mr. Showbiz by Kevin Maynard
Tries to have it both ways -- as a kitschy ode to bodybuilding culture and as a tragic story of a man who was persecuted for his dreams.
Beefcake
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Canada,
- United Kingdom,
- France
- 1998
- · 91m
Director
Thom Fitzgerald
Cast
Daniel MacIvor,
Joshua Peace,
Jack Griffin Mazeika,
Carroll Godsman,
Jonathan Torrens
Genre
Documentary,
Drama,
History
Thom Fitzgerald's provocative blending of fiction and documentary tells the story of Bob Mizer, the pioneering founder of the Athletic Model Guild. This company produced still photographs and short films detailing men's beauty and chiseled physiques. This film looks at the 1950's muscle men's magazines that were primarily purchased by the underground homosexual community.
Stream Beefcake
What are critics saying?
70
TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox
Fanciful and highly entertaining docudrama.
67
Austin Chronicle by Russell Smith
There's an undeniable energy, originality and -- most hearteningly -- optimism here that makes Beefcake well worth your time, shortcomings and all.
63
Boston Globe
It leaves you with an odd, sweet-and-sour taste - nostalgia painted in pastel colors, streaked with black smears.
63
Boston Globe by Jim Sullivan
It leaves you with an odd, sweet-and-sour taste - nostalgia painted in pastel colors, streaked with black smears.
63
Chicago Tribune by John Petrakis
Much to enjoy in this potpourri of silly fun and forbidden games, but a bit less ambition and a tad more focus might have helped.
60
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
An illuminating and engrossing look at the life and times of pioneer Los Angeles physique photographer Bob Mizer
60
Variety by Dennis Harvey
As a mix of nonfiction and wafer-thin drama, however, it's a genial mess in which both elements emerge undercooked
60
Village Voice by Vince Aletti
Beefcake's messiness has real charm, and its tribute to Mizer is both appropriately complicated and poignantly sexy.
60
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
A fascinating double-edged portrait of 1950s Los Angeles.
58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Paula Nechak
A heady, impressionistic mixture of biography, fantasy and social history in which it isn't always clear which is which.
50
New York Daily News by Jami Bernard
This movie's attempt to reinvent Mizer as a First Amendment hero isn't as effective as its triumphant display of beefcake, which is, after all, the movie's raison d'etre.
50
Film.com by Ernest Hardy
Like the melancholy remininces of an old relative who lived through an exciting, even harrowing time, but no longer possesses the mental faculties to really flesh out the tale they're spinning.
40
Chicago Reader by Lisa Alspector
Ultimately this is a sharp-focus issue movie, decrying intolerance as it explores the effects of labeling, the complexity of fetishizing, and the differences between business and crime.
38
New York Post by Jonathan Foreman
A campy docu-drama about the secretly gay world of 1950's muscle magazines.
20
L.A. Weekly
Dull, tacky docudrama
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