In Richard Pagano’s indie comedy, Lea Thompson plays a brothel’s business-savvy madam with a ticking biological clock.
The microbudget comedy “Ten Tricks” pairs a last performance of a burned-out magician (Albie Selznick) with the erotic goings-on of the brothel nearby. The film follows a madam, Grace (an earnestly crafted turn by Lea Thompson), in her last-ditch effort to become pregnant, and intersperses slapstick scenes of her prostitutes servicing clients with magician-related plot for comedic relief in between.
The veteran casting director Richard Pagano (“X-Men: The Last Stand,” “Hotel Rwanda”) wrote and directed the film, adapted from his play of the same name that debuted in Los Angeles in 2003. The film version, set in a nonspecific recent time and shot in black-and-white by the cinematographer John Bailey, feels decidedly stuck in the past. Pagano makes frequent use of silent film-era-style intertitles, which pinpoint the key dialogue from a scene in advance only to end up highlighting the script’s inability to stand on its own. The mishmash of an incessant, distracting musical score also fails to provide first-aid.
The film deluges viewers with cringe-worthy moments sourced from harmful stereotypes, like a “crazy” Asian prostitute and a Pakistani customer made to look like Aladdin, who is into the Kama Sutra.
The movie also serves as a textbook example of the male gaze; the only male brothel worker is excluded from the nudity and hyper-objectifying camera angles, which the film traffics in when it comes to the women. And despite her strong effort, even Thompson can’t deliver the film’s attempt at a three-dimensional female protagonist.
There is truly no magic here.
Ten Tricks
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes. Watch on Fandor.
