After seeing "Eastern Promises" I tried to make good on my promise to myself to go through the rest of Cronenberg's filmography that I hadn't yet seen, and I started with Fast Company, a 1979 film about drag-strip racers in the Northern plains states. It's likable enough, with veteran tough guy character actor William Smith giving a solid performance as star "Lucky Man" Johnson who has at the beginning of the film had just about enough of his snake-oil salesman of a corporate sponsor (who else but John Saxon) and is itching to get out of the biz altogether or take charge of his own career. Likable -- but utterly predictable as well, with Johnson eventually burning his bridges and forming his own little retinue of racers and girlfriends of racers to take on his replacement, who of course respects Johnson and doesn't like the dirty pool that Saxon and his henchmen are playing to try to discredit him. Not a whole lot else to be said about it; if you're into drag racing, this might be a lot more fun; for me it was pretty mediocre. DVD rental.
Review of Fast Company
Fast Company
(1979)
typical 70s muscle car movie doesn't really bear Cronenberg's stamp
21 April 2008
Warning: Spoilers