Cynthia Plaster Caster with Wayne Kramer and his little head.

Plaster Caster: The Rock & Roll Adventures of Super-Groupie Cynthia Plaster Caster

The Plaster Casters of Chicago started making plaster casts of rock star's dicks in in the late 60's, and Cynthia is still at it today. This documentary captures both the good times, laughs and legends you would expect, as well as some mundane and genuinely awkward moments.

We see her hanging out friends and musicians, doing a shoot in her apartment for VH-1, and during a trip to California to visit Pamela Des Barres, her old casting partner Miss Mercy, and the lawyer who helped get her "babies" back from Frank Zappa's ex-manager. Some of the harsher moments include her confronting Wayne Kramer with her mistaken recollection that he and Dennis Thompson knowingly exposed her and other casters to various STDs, dealing poorly with a rude business people, and realizing she can't afford a rent increase.

Easily the best scene involves the casting of Danny Doll Rod, a man alarmingly comfortable with his nudity. He and Cynthia rent to the same hotel room in which she cast Jimi Hendrix, and he lies on the bed while she prepares the mix, making up the scenario that he's just come from playing a show and there are tons of girls outside wanting to get in, but he's only letting in one very special lady. Then they're making out and he's naked and you see a casting in progress, messy and intimate, and ultimately successful -- unbelievably the cast replicates Danny's penis in the midst of ejaculation.

There are also, of course, interview clips with lots of rock and indie rock stars -- Jello Biafra, Jon Langford, Eric Burden, Pete Shelley, Chris Connely, and Ian Svenonius to name just a few, and lots of scenes shot around hipster Chicago -- the Empty Bottle, Double Door, Rainbo Club, and the Wiener's Cirlce (no one even cracks a joke.)

Not to compare Cynthia to a human phallus, but in a way, this documentary is a cast of her that will preserve her unique place in rock history for the ages. It's a party, and quite a few people are coming.

Plaster Caster
91 min
Xenon Pictures/Fragment Films

-Edgar Barrington

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