Kim Cattrall looks every day of her 53 years in “Meet Monica Velour.” The normally glamorous “Sex and the City” star appears in some scenes without makeup to disguise the crow’s feet around her eyes. She also has slight jowls, having reportedly gained 15 pounds and stopped exercising for her role as a 49-year-old ’80s adult film star who gets booed off the stage as at a small-town Iowa strip club.
In this coming-of-age comedy that had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday, the hard-drinking trailer-park resident Monica is helped by an 17-year-old fan (Dustin Ingram) who idolizes her work in epics like “Saturday Night Beaver.” Jamie Tisdale, who doesn’t much resemble the “Porky’s”-era Cattrall, plays the younger Monica in flashbacks, which include some nudity and a 3-D sequence for which no glasses were provided at the screening.
Cattrall (who is in London starring in “Private Lives” on stage) is fine as Monica, who somewhat improbably has what looks like a five-year-old daughter who’s in the custody of her absusive ex. And character actor Keith David is a very welcome presence as a collector of pop ephemera who purchases our hero’s weiner-mobile.
“Meet Monica Velour” has its moments, but director Keith Bearden (in his feature debut) doesn’t always gracefully segue from comedy to the sadder moments in Monica’s life (including, of course, relieving the hero of his virginity). The flick, far too slavishly imitative of “Napoleon Dynamite.” is seeking a U.S. distributor.
