The Telephone Book

Any humour in the original idea - an obscene phone-caller of such seductive skill that his victims long for aural molestation - is soon sabotaged by the director's blind intent on demonstrating that, although it may be a comedy, he sure knows how to make a film, and an arty one at that. The brief presence of three ex-Warhol personalities merely emphasises that, where the Warhol movies were funny and interesting (and boring) because the people in them were recognisable human beings, the characters teetering through this tired script are actors pretending to be kooky people. Having misunderstood the connection between sex and '60s avant-garde, Lyon - in a desperate bid to save a failed project - tarts things up at the end with a bit of explicit animation.