Interior. Leather Bar.

A sly conceptual coup d’art and a deeply sincere exploration of masculinity and its discontents, with a little hot sex thrown in.

Franco has finally delivered a side project that does at least some justice to his eclectic artistic ambitions.

With Travis Mathews's help, James Franco's persona forms a kind of symmetry: 1980's dubious homophobia against 2013's risible homophilia.

We see brief, graphic shots of naked actors performing sexual acts. But it’s the conversations about what those depictions represent that truly provoke.

Brief yet underdeveloped, Interior. Leather Bar. has a faux-documentary vibe about it.

A partly authentic, partly scripted behind-the-scenes featurette that never quite conveys the star’s “high/curious” interest in all things taboo.

It's a particularly risible nothing whose premise alone betrays the paucity of Franco's imagination and wit.

A Daring Exploration Reconstructing Cinema's Censored Boundaries and Questioning Societal Taboos. 170326 (3.5) This film is a project aimed at reconstructing the controversial forty minutes that were cut from Al Pacino's 1980 film "Cruising" amid fierce backlash. Because the setting of that original film was a gay leather bar, the title of this work became "Interior. Leather Bar." - 1. I am constantly amazed by James Franco's broad tolerance and openness. Most of the cast, including Val Lauren, leaped into this project solely placing their absolute trust in James Franco. Many real-life couples participated together, delivering daring and explicit performances. 2. "If it can push back against the heteronormative constraints forced upon us by the world, I am ready to embrace any shock." 3. James Franco's heartfelt interview question, "There are films where people kill each other, so why is it only a problem when a movie features gay sexuality?", leaves a profound impression. 4. Val Lauren steps into the role originally held by Al Pacino, who played the undercover police officer infiltrating the gay scene in "Cruising." Just like Pacino did, he skillfully captures the journey of being shocked by the intense environment, experiencing internal conflict, coming to understand it, and eventually adapting to it. Directed by James Franco and Travis Mathews, the 2013 experimental docufiction drama "Interior. Leather Bar." blurs the lines between documentary, fictional reconstruction, and **** cinematic essay. The project takes inspiration from William Friedkin's 1980 thriller "Cruising," which famously had approximately forty minutes of explicit footage cut to avoid an X rating and pacify widespread protests. Rather than attempting a literal scene-by-scene remake, Franco and Mathews assemble a group of actors and adult performers in an intimate warehouse studio to freely re-imagine what those lost minutes might have entailed. The film focuses heavily on the psychological tension of straight lead actor Val Lauren as he confronts personal boundaries, artistic vulnerability, and **** subcultures, resulting in a meta-cinematic dialogue about censorship, sexual freedom, and creative cour

This documentary based around the supposedly cut 40 minutes from William Friedkin's controversial 1980 film 'Cruising', is a bizarre if intriguing proposition. We never fully comprehend why actor James Franco would want to partake in such a film, but he is certainly to be admired for his diligence and determination in what many considered a foolhardy project for the A lister. The film fascinatingly touches on his involvement and explores the possibility of repercussions affecting his Hollywood career. After all one has to admit this is a long way from Disney's Oz. The film does raise many very pertinent points about human conditioning and sexuality which are definitely topics for debate. However, because of its subject matter and some explicit sexual material, it will certainly have a very limited audience. Ultimately, and in all probability, it will find itself preaching to the converted. Oddly, though, it was meant to be a film about the afore mentioned cut 40 minutes. Well, we don't actually get to see that film. One is finally left feeling that, for all the little nuggets of thought provoking conversation raised, in the final analysis the resultant enterprise is somewhat redundant even though it is eminently watchable.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

More premise than film, INTERIOR: LEATHER BAR seems to want to shock but it can't. There's simply nothing there. The less said the better about this total misfire made by people with very little on their mind other than to riff on other people's far better works. See CRUISING instead. It may be a mess, but CRUISING is also some kind of masterpiece of its time and unlike INTERIOR has too much on its mind rather than too little or almost nothing.