Directed by Lamont Johnson
Written by Davis Rayfiel
Starring:
- Margaux Hemingway as Chris McCormick
- Chris Sarandon as Gordon Stuart
- Perry King as Steve Edison
- Anne Bancroft as Carla Bondi
- Mariel Hemingway as Kathy McCormick
Rating: 
“Less is worse and more is better”—that seems to be the credo behind Lamont Johnson’s Lipstick, a film whose appetite for sensationalism ultimately undermines the seriousness of its intent. Though it attempts to expose the judicial and social failures that govern modern American life, the film’s randomly violent method weakens the force of its critique. What remains is a sleek, combustible piece of exploitation cinema that raises urgent questions about institutional protection, embodied most vividly in its protagonist, the fashion model Chris McCormick—played with striking poise by Margaux Hemingway—whose assault at the hands of her sister’s predatory music teacher (Chris Sarandon) becomes the narrative’s brutal hinge. Johnson stages the film’s notorious rape sequence with baroque exaggeration, leaning more toward sadistic spectacle than genuine terror, leaving viewers uncertain whether the film is critiquing violence or capitalizing on it. Yet the Hemingway sisters, both in their debuts, imbue the material with a moral gravity that far outstrips Johnson’s hyperbolic style. Lipstick straddles courtroom drama and rape-revenge territory, but its excesses provoke more than they illuminate. In the end, the fetishistic violence—underscored by a dissonant, groovy score—lingers longer than any supposed message, revealing just how frivolous the film’s ambitions truly are.
