Rented Lips 1987

Archie Powell is a documentary filmmaker, portrayed by Martin Mull, who works with his best friend and cinematographer Dick Shawn on projects such as Aluminum and Our Shiny Friend. He still lives at home with his mother, Mrs. Powell June Lockhart, who is growing weary of Archie’s single-minded devotion to filmmaking and would rather he meet a nice woman.

When a chance arises to realize their dream project—a musical about Indian farming techniques—for an executive who will allow them to reuse the same cast and crew, Archie and Charlie head to the set with cautious optimism and a shared stubbornness about the kind of movie they want to make.

On arrival they discover the project is actually a porno with a clunky World War II-era script, but rather than walk away they decide to salvage it by reworking the material into a musical exploitation film, hoping the audacious pivot will win over the producers and the audience.

Obstacles multiply on set, including an eccentric actor named Wolf Robert Downey Jr who throws unpredictable energy into the production and raises tensions with his bold ideas, as well as external threats from an extreme religious organization that puts pressure on the shoot.

Archie’s mother arranges a blind date for him with Mona Lisa Jennifer Tilly, who is delighted to learn he is a director and quickly becomes part of the cast, though she is kept away from adult scenes to accommodate the evolving script.

This decision annoys Wolf, who pushes for more explicit scenes, only to be rebuffed by Mona Lisa’s boundaries and professionalism, which in turn sets up a clash of visions among the ensemble.

Midway through, Rev. Farrell Kenneth Mars arrives with followers to set everything on fire; the turn of events shocks Archie, who discovers that Mona Lisa is actually Farrell’s daughter, a revelation that raises the stakes and complicates his choices.

Archie ultimately changes his mind, choosing to complete both films, and learns that Farrell once produced pornography and wrote the original script—information Archie weaponizes as blackmail to protect the project and push it forward.

With the production wrapped and his career advancing, the film ends with a cut to Archie waking up at his typewriter, continuing to write, and then a montage of professional success, leaving it up to the viewer to decide whether the events were real or merely a script he was drafting.