Toby Ross & the 70's Review

Distributor: Toby Ross / BDF (Big Dik Factory) Edition Details: Standard Streaming Movie Specs: Genres: Documentary, Gay Run Time: 87 minutes Rated: not Release Year: 2010 Director: Joe Rubin, Josh Dolgin Written by: Joe Rubin, Josh Dolgin Cast: Steven Toushin, Josh Dolgin, Toby Ross, Joe Rubin Release Specs: Audio: English Stereo Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: Streaming Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): N/A Number of discs: N/A

Toby Ross & the 70's is a documentary on acclaimed gay adult filmmaker Toby Ross by Joe Rubin, who would go on to become one of the co-founders of Vinegar Syndrome, with some portions by Josh Dolgin. While Toby Ross & the 70's would indicate, from its title, that the documentary only covers Toby Ross' work within the 1970s, the main focus of the documentary is Toby Ross' entire shot on film movie period of 1973 to 1983.

The documentary itself starts out with Toby Ross' beginning in photography for the adult film industry and how he moved into 8mm loops before getting into making his own films, the first film (Reflections of Youth) actually being a loop carrier for several loops that he had previously made. The documentary then goes through Toby Ross' films one-by-one finishing with The Last Surfer, Toby Ross' last shot on film movie before he switched over to shot on video productions.

The biggest issues that Toby Ross & the 70's faces are the lack of focus that the documentary has and the lack of participants in the documentary. There are only four participants in the documentary, including Toby Ross himself. Only one of whom knew Toby Ross from his film period is Steven Toushin, the owner of the Bijou Theater, the oldest gay theater in the United States, and the owner of Bijou Video. More voices were definitely needed for the documentary to talk about Toby Ross in the 1970s.

This reviewer recognizes that it is hard to find Toby Ross' contemporaries from that period who are still alive, however, Toby Ross talks about Wakefield Poole, who is still very much alive, and would have made an excellent addition to the documentary. Not only does Toby Ross discuss Wakefield Poole liking one of his films but Toby Ross also worked as the cinematographer on Wakefield Poole's Hot Shots. Mainstream director John Waters is also noticeably missing. While he wasn't connected with the gay adult film industry, John Waters has appeared in several documentaries on the adult film industry in the 1970s to talk about both the straight and gay sides of the industry.

Of the remaining speakers in the documentary, Josh Dolgin has only a very recent tenuous connection to Toby Ross and the footage with him really pulls away from the focus of the documentary and Joe Rubin, who has worked for Toby Ross, only worked for him recently so while interesting, Joe Rubin's stories fit within the wrong time frame and seem out of place in the documentary. These more recent connections to Toby Ross cause the documentary to bounce around quite a bit.

These criticisms shouldn't be taken as Toby Ross & the 70's not being worth watching. Much of the documentary is composed of footage of Toby Ross talking about how he started out as a photographer, how he got into making adult movies, his works, and his craft itself. These portions do rely too much on the viewer having seen the films being discussed and often feel like they are director featurettes for each film stitched together that should have been separate on a DVD releases for the various films. The documentary also starts very abruptly giving the viewer the feeling that they missed the very beginning of the documentary.

The documentary consists of newly shot footage for the documentary, including some scenic scapes that are shown over some of Toby Ross' stories, and archival footage from Toby Ross' films. There are odd optic and color effects used on much of the footage of Toby Ross speaking.

Toby Ross & the 70's is far from perfect as a documentary. However, Toby Ross shares some interesting information about his career in the movie. Viewers who have watched and are familiar with Toby Ross' shot on film movie period will get far more out of the documentary then viewers who aren't. Toby Ross & the 70's is worth watching, just be prepared to be frustrated during portions of the documentary.

The edition of Toby Ross & the 70's screened is the streaming-only edition available at TobyRoss.com. Toby Ross and BDF (Big Dik Factory) have done a nice job with their streaming-only edition of Toby Ross & the 70's. Toby Ross & the 70's appears to have been shot digitally and is presented in the Academy aspect ratio of 1.33:1 pillarboxed to the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The movie is composed of newly shot footage for the documentary mixed with archival material. The newly shot footage looks nice and is blemish free with good colors. The archival material, as can be expected, varies and is often in poor shape. There is a TobyRoss.com bug in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.

Toby Ross & the 70's is presented with an English Stereo audio track. For the most part, the audio presentation for the movie is good with nice clear dialog. However, the portion of the documentary pertaining to the Cruisin' 57 screening has muffled and distorted audio that can be hard to discern. That is the only portion of the movie that has audio issues.

Toby Ross and BDF haven't included any extras for their streaming-only release of Toby Ross & the 70's.

Toby Ross & the 70's is both an interesting, and frustrating, documentary about the beginning of gay adult film director Toby Ross' career. Toby Ross & the 70's covers Toby Ross' entire shot on film movie period, however, the documentary's downfall is its lack of focus and that the documentary often feels like an accompaniment to each film and not a stand-alone movie. Toby Ross and BDF (Big Dik Factory) have done a good job with their streaming-only release of Toby Ross & the 70's on TobyRoss.com with good video and only one period of problematic audio quality.

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