Variety
Variety

Watch Variety Online Free

- 60/100 based on 1,084 votes

Christine (Sandy McLeod) takes a job selling tickets at a porno theater near Times Square. Instead of distancing herself from the dark and erotic nature of this milieu, she develops an obsession that begins to consume her life. Few films deal honestly with a female sexual pointof-view, controversial and highly personal, VARIETY does just this.... (Full plot summary below)

Watch MOVIES for FREE on Prime Video

Enjoy FREE movies and series with your Prime (USA) subscription or when you start a 30-day free trial!

Share this

Variety Online Streaming

Links compiled using automated software. Availability of offers subject to change / might be region specific / out of date.

Rent Variety on DVD

Rent Variety on Blu-ray

Today's Featured Movies:

The ApartmentThe Apartment
Perfume: The Story of a MurdererPerfume: The Story of a Murderer
The WrestlerThe Wrestler
The Tomorrow WarThe Tomorrow War
AlienAlien
Burn After ReadingBurn After Reading
The Boondock SaintsThe Boondock Saints
The DescentThe Descent
Midnight in ParisMidnight in Paris
A Fistful of DollarsA Fistful of Dollars
Resident EvilResident Evil
ApocalyptoApocalypto
Minority ReportMinority Report
Hotel RwandaHotel Rwanda
The Mask of ZorroThe Mask of Zorro
DodgeBall: A True Underdog StoryDodgeBall: A True Underdog Story

You Might Also Like:

The Whole ShebangThe Whole Shebang
Nobody's HomeNobody's Home
Saint Louis BluesSaint Louis Blues
Boys Don't CryBoys Don't Cry
Face of a StrangerFace of a Stranger
Bad BehaviourBad Behaviour

Actors in Variety:

Sandy McLeod
Richard M. Davidson
Luis Guzmán
Will Patton
Nan Goldin
Mark Boone Junior

Full Plot Details

Christine (Sandy McLeod) takes a job selling tickets at a porno theater near Times Square. Instead of distancing herself from the dark and erotic nature of this milieu, she develops an obsession that begins to consume her life. Few films deal honestly with a female sexual pointof-view, controversial and highly personal, VARIETY does just this.

Review & Comments

Leave your thoughts about Variety.

Movie Reviews

ColeSmithey.com - 9/10 by Cole SmitheyBette Gordon's independent psychological thriller, written by Kathy Acker, is a stunning proto-feminist noir experiment set in the sex shops of 1983 Times Square.
EmanuelLevy.Com - 8/10 by Emanuel LevyA signifcant feminist indie about sexual difference, desire, and gaze.
User Review - 10/10 by Samantha SBette Gordon is great at capturing those private moments in public spaces and personal moments in private spaces. She really lets the action play out and keeps the frame wonderfully engaged without significant cutting around. There is always tension, there is always something going on. Everything was insanely interesting and charged with thriller like intensity without the falsity. What a way to end the movie, with an unfulfilled promise, the way porn ends, with all fantasy and no physical resolution or satisfaction.
User Review - 8/10 by John MVariety is an important film for many reasons. It explores detachment, boredom, and voyeurism in ways never shown in a movie. The story centers around Christine (Sandy McLeod) taking a job as a ticket taker at a NYC porn theater, and how her life is transformed by the people, environment, and culture as a whole. Lesser films have mined similar territory by focusing on women "unlocking their sexual desires" and invariably deteriorating into soft core titillation. Variety ends up closer to Susan Seidelman's Smithereens or Desperately Seeking Susan than late night cable fare. Slapping the term "feminist" on a film is frustratingly non-specific, but Variety is told from a certain "feminine" point of view, and how a woman can feel and act when placed in a certain situation. Christine is operating on instinct and impulse; letting the new world around her change how she interfaces with her old life and how she views herself. Fascinating not only for the stark NY/NJ street scenes circa 1983, but how the director Bette Gordon reveals a character study of someone whose actions some of us may not relate to, but whose willingness to give into self-exploration wherever that road may lead is thought provoking nonetheless.
User Review - 6/10 by Marrick AThis is an intermittently interesting movie far more concerned with mood than plot, which is sometimes a problem since it also concerns itself with being a neo-noir. Bette Gordon does have a feminist angle here with a protagonist who goes down into the porn underworld with a job as a ticket window of a Times Square porn theater (yeah, it's the 80s), but after a strong start she goes into a modus operondi that is at times intriguing (that scene where she looks at the screen in the movie theater seeing herself and the middle-aged "businessman"), at times really annoying (Sandy McLeod's very bad recitation of lines, as opposed to real acting, when giving the synopses of the porn movies to uncomfortable Will Patton), and at times just quite dull (she walks around following this mysterious man with possible criminal ties... but why, and what does it lead to?) Bottom line, when Luis Guzman steals the show, you've got um.. something weird and not always successful. It's respectable, just not very memorable. Taxi Driver for chicks it is NOT.
User Review - 6/10 by Andrew RTolerable film; in its own way, rather like Downtown 81 (the Basquiat film) in that its value is largely as a document of the many creative people thriving in the '80s L.E.S. scene (Acker, Goldin, John Lurie, etc.).
User Review - 4/10 by David Jso many good / interesting ideas....and music by John Lure....and Spalding Grey, and Luis Guzman....overly long with some really dicey acting....could've been really great....

Browse Movie Genres

Other Links

Variety

Watch Online For Free | Free Movies | Movie Genres | Most Viewed | Top Rated | Latest Releases

About Us • Affiliates • Terms of Use • Disclaimer • Cookies • Privacy Policy • Copyright • DMCA Compliance • Contact Us • Language Settings

Copyright © 2004 - 2016 Watch Online For Free or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Imagery, artwork, logos, service marks, and trademarks used on this page are the intellectual property of their respective companies.

Related Websites: Amazon Prime Free Trial - DVD Rental Free Trial - Free Prime Video Trial - Movie Trailers