Julia Fox was one of several breakouts to emerge from 2019’s finest and most stressful film, “Uncut Gems,” and while many critics dismissively referred to her character exclusively as Adam Sandler’s mistress, the unconventional genius of Fox’s performance in that underworld caper was that her troublemaking club girl was ultimately revealed to be every bit as conniving as the Sandman’s rapacious jeweler hero. Fox, deservedly, became a star based on Josh and Benny Safdie’s Diamond District masterwork, and the question of where her career would go from there remains a tantalizing one (Fox is one of many set to appear in Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming “No Sudden Move”).
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One can only applaud Fox’s chutzpah in continuing to take on risky and challenging parts, as she does once again in Ben Hozie’s “PVT Chat,” a scuzzy little spitball of a movie that takes a trawl through the modern sexual netherworld of New York City. Certainly, there are some superficial similarities to the Safdie oeuvre in this strange new indie item: like “Uncut Gems,” the hero of “PVT Chat” is a gambler (albeit one addicted to online blackjack as opposed to high-stakes sports betting), and the presence of both Fox and “Good Time” scene-stealer Buddy Duress in a brief but memorable role only fortifies the comparison. “PVT Chat” certainly possesses an attitude that can’t be faked: it has that grimy, real-deal N.Y.C. edge that no amount of industry clout can buy. The movie’s dedication to its sordid milieu will undoubtedly prove to be one of the more divisive things about it. While it feels safe to say that Hozie’s film is the textbook definition of “not for everyone,” there’s enough that works here to recommend “PVT Chat” on its own uncompromising terms.
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Viewers who bellyache over the question of whether or not a protagonist has to be “likable” are going to have a tough time with this movie’s hero, and I use that term very loosely here. Said “hero” is Jack, played in “PVT Chat” by Peter Vack, who presents a commendable case here in making Jack the least-endearing film protagonist of 2021 so far. To wit: Jack is an emotional cipher who inhabits an endless, empty cycle of lurid pleasure and cheap self-gratification. His New York is like a slightly more absurd version of the sexual necropolis Michael Fassbender occupied in Steve McQueen’s “Shame,” and there are even subtle, knowing stylistic nods to the seedy peep show milieu of Bette Gordon’s No Wave classic “Variety” to solidify the sense that the world of sex is the only world Jack is even remotely interested in.
Inasmuch as he has one, Jack’s routine involves scrolling endlessly through pages of webcam girls, searching for some form of connection. When Jack isn’t doing this, he’s gambling, scarfing down instant ramen, or splurging for a “happy ending” at a local massage parlor. Jack is like a jilted, soul-dead Bret Easton Ellis protagonist, but without the cocoon of irony and affluence that typically protects those characters. While some viewers will almost certainly clock him on first glance as a repulsive, entitled creep (and not without good reason, which is a testament to Vack’s performance), Hozie’s refusal to gloss over his lead’s more odious qualities is so stanch that it almost becomes admirable.
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The only non-toxic variable at play in Jack’s miserable life is Scarlet (Fox), a webcam dominatrix with whom our lead character shares a back-and-forth that is at once tender and undeniably transactional (for what it’s worth, Scarlet also enjoys pretending to put cigarettes out on Jack’s tongue). Scarlet claims to live in the Bay Area, but Jack becomes convinced that he’s seen her in his own N.Y.C. neighborhood during one of his nightly walks. It is at this juncture that “PVT Chat” threatens to veer into potentially problematic territory, as Jack graduates from his puerile online obsession to actual, real-life stalking, and other unseemly behavior. Nearly all the film’s scheming characters remain mired in self-created webs of their own desperation and need. However, Fox, who radiates an uncanny self-possession while onscreen, emerges as the only character in “PVT Chat” who ever seems like she’s in control of her own narrative.
A less assured film might attempt to humanize Jack, or at the very least, make excuses for his abhorrent behavior. What happens instead is intriguing: about halfway through “PVT Chat,” the film pivots in perspective, effectively becoming Scarlet’s story instead of Jack’s. While Hozie’s attempts at constructing an inner life for a woman who might register as a mere object of desire in a less inquisitive film are admirable, “PVT Chat’s” Scarlet-centric passages often feel like a different movie filled with all-too-familiar material. Thankfully, Fox manages to leap over various hurdles due to her movie-star charisma’s sheer, indomitable force.
“PVT Chat” is a nasty, unflinching, discomfitingly watchable experiment that, if nothing else, proves once again that Julia Fox should be in all the movies, all the time. A few subplots in the icky film could have been dropped, and the ending seems deliberately engineered to provoke disgust rather than provide resolution. That said, there is a disturbingly authentic commentary at play here on our online era of desensitization and dominance – viewers might have to wade through a veritable sea of sleaze in order to get to it. [B-]