PVT Chat (Fantasia Fest)
**Watched for the 2020 Fantasia International Film Festival.
If Julia Fox does not end up playing a noir femme fatale at some point in her career, it’ll be one of the great casting blunders in modern movies. In both this and “Uncut Gems,” she uses her sexuality to draw us in, and her intelligence to hold our attention. She’s also impossibly charismatic, especially when she’s putting men in their place. That’s important for her role in Ben Hozie’s “PVT Chat.”
Sometimes, relationships only work in a particular situation. It’s not necessarily a knock on either of the individuals involved- it’s just how the relationship works. The main relationship in “PVT Chat” only works when there’s a barrier between the characters, Jack (Peter Vack) and Scarlet (Fox’s character). When we first see them together, it is with a computer screen- and, allegedly, thousands of miles between them. Scarlet is a cam girl who specializes in Dom-Sub fantasies, and Jack is someone infatuated with her. An online gambler, he pumps money at her until he gets off, but sometimes, he genuinely wants to have a conversation with her. Scarlet goes along with it so long as he keeps paying her, but when he catches a glimpse of someone who looks like her on the streets, he starts to wonder if they could have something more. Eventually, she seems to wonder the same.
Fair warning- this movie is relatively graphic in terms of nudity and sexual situations. (I can’t imagine it getting an R-rating.) That’s not what makes it good, though; Hozie’s script shows the characters as having issues with intimacy in their interpersonal relationships that makes them being drawn to one another inevitable, but also shows why that will probably not work. Jack seems to have an addictive personality when it comes to his online gambling (which has, admittedly, made him a decent nest egg) and cam girls, although it’s obvious seeing his other interactions that none of those work as well as his with Scarlet. Scarlet, meanwhile, is simply an idealized fantasy until we see her personal life later in the film, and I am reminded of Princeton Holt’s “Cookies & Cream,” which was about a phone sex worker who had difficulty finding genuine romantic connections because of her work. Once we get to meet her up close, Fox is given a chance to flesh out the character, and seeing Scarlet deal with prejudices her friends hold towards her work is compelling and gives her a strong opportunity to make a character that’s more than just a sex object, and she makes the most of it.
I’m curious to see Julia Fox’s career trajectory in the coming years. Will she be typecast by a system that only sees her physical attributes? Will she have filmmakers giving her material to develop a strong character out of like she did in this and “Uncut Gems?” Or, will she have to search out filmmakers willing to give her a chance on risky material? Whatever the answer, “PVT Chat” is a compelling stepping stone in her career that could open doors to the latter two questions, or have Hollywood looking at her and do what it always does. I certainly hope it’s the former.
**My original capsule review, published after watching it at Fantasia Fest.
Peter Vack is an online gambling addict who also has a fixation on a cam girl (Julia Fox) after his roommate dies unexpectedly. What starts as a simple exchange becomes an exploration into the individual struggles of the characters, whether it’s loneliness and the limitations of specific relationships, or how an idealized persona masks a life that has challenges when it doesn’t feel like people around you accept you for who you are. Vack and Fox do strong work in a graphic, smart sexual drama that continues to show Fox as a screen presence to pay attention to after her work in “Uncut Gems.”
