It’s not a great film, but this 29 minute short from 1993, featuring an all black cast, is very likely the most interesting post-1980 film made by the late Melvin Van Peebles. Given that Van Peebles’s best films (such as THE STORY OF A THREE-DAY PASS and SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG) thrived on provocation, the (comparatively) non-confrontational VROOOM VROOM VROOOOM registers as a frivolity, albeit an enjoyable and engagingly perverse one. It was included in the German-backed 1996 anthology film TALES OF EROTICA, and ranks as its wildest entry (no small claims, as the other TALES were made by Ken Russell, Susan Seidelman and Bob Rafelson).
In some unidentified backwoods environ (much of it filmed on a stage), several people—refugees, perhaps, from Van Peebles’ 1973 musical comedy DON’T PLAY US CHEAP—are having a raucous dance party, with, in a quintessentially Van Peebles touch, copious close-ups of the ladies’ quivering breasts and asses (politically correct this guy wasn’t). Only the nerdy Leroy (Richard Barboza) is excluded from the festivities. Leroy suffers from “pussy bumps” on his face, which his gas station owner father (Dewar Zazee) claims will persist “until you learn to hang around some gal and sweet talk her into lifting up her skirt and givin’ you some!”
Things change for Leroy when he saves an old gypsy woman from drowning and she offers to grant him a wish—which he talks her into increasing to two. We never find out precisely what those wishes are, but given the admonitions of Leroy’s father we can confidently guess one of them, and the other becomes clear when Leroy is given a nifty motorcycle. When he drives it the thing transforms into a beautiful woman via digital effects by Syzygy Digital Cinema (which also provided early stage CGI to M. BUTTERFLY, THE HUDSUCKER PROXY and
CROOKLYN) that by 1993 standards are quite accomplished. But this machine is a jealous type, and isn’t at all pleased when the pussy bump-free Leroy begins seeing a flesh-and-blood woman.
The dialogue and performances are quite stagey. Van Peebles tries to counteract this by keeping his camera constantly in motion and blasting ever-present music, composed (as was the case on most of Van Peebles’ self-directed films) by the filmmaker himself. That latter element deserves a singling out, as the music is among the film’s most striking components, particularly in the motorcycle riding/sex scenes. It’s then that we get a jazzy refrain incorporating the irresistible lyric “Come to Mama,” which helps render these scenes—in which the CGI may be impressive but the patently unreal model train backgrounds definitely aren’t—palatable.
Vital Statistics
VROOOM VROOM VROOOOM
Yeah, Inc./Regina Ziegler Filmproduktion
Director/Producer/Screenwriter/Editor: Melvin Van Peebles
Cinematography: Igor Sunara
Cast: Richard Barboza, Dewar Zazee, Laura Lane, Kim Smith, William (Spaceman) Patterson, Ted Hayes, Asha Jenkins, “New Image,” Reggie Osse
