Private Parts (1997)
Seen at the Loew's Orpheum, Third Ave. and 86th St. by myself at 11:30, with a half-off coupon.
Many have made mention of Howard Stern coming off as a big pussycat in this dramatization of his life that finally makes him "King of All Media." Unlike the book of the same name, this movie covers Stern's life from childhood to about 1984, just before he is fired from WNBC in New York City.
The story is told mainly in flashback, the movie framed by Howard's MTV Awards appearance as Fartman and his arrival at JFK Airport. Audiences are immediately disarmed when it is revealed that the publicly vainglorious Howard is embarrassed and belittled by his butt-cheek-baring appearance on cable television, viewed as an oddity by the stars he would have as his peers.
We are taken through Howard's early radio career, where he is suppressed by the understood confines of American radio. In the film we are led to believe that the reason Howard is obnoxious is that he had been holding back and not being himself. However, it is hard to believe that this is Howard just being himself. He obviously knows how to get an audience going and the act is actually rather calculated. This is probably just one of the many reasons people, and the FCC, are out to get him.
The film's true heart is Howard and his crew versus the radio stations where they work, especially in Washington DC and at WNBC in New York, where "Pig Vomit" (a/k/a Kenny, Paul Giamatti's performance lives up the the character's nickname) is set against him before he is even on the air. Any attempt to reign him in is met with greater and greater resistance, with bits like Lesbian Dial-a-Date or Out-of-the-Closet Stern.
There is a certain amount of event-altering, which to Howard's many fans, are evident: The schism between Howard and Alyson, for example, is something I never recall hearing about on the radio show or reading in the book. It is hard to believe, after listening to Howard's show for more than a decade, that he saved something, or anything, new for the movie.
Mary McCormack is wonderful as Howard's wife Alyson, who often suffers the public recounting of their lives on the radio. Howard Stern, Robin Quivers, and Fred Norris play themselves in the film.
-------- Copyright 1997 Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021
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