This was fun to gawk yet at the same time rather disappointing (maybe depressing would be a better description) . Fun if you go into it expecting sex, dazzling faces and writhing bodies. But disappointing because there is diminutive else besides. Depressing because the main characters appear so selfish, self-absorbed and are not in fact very likeable. Its main theme is about two emotionally immature individuals, learning rather tedious in life, the contrast between lust and cherish. It’s based on a short fable by Tamara Faith Berger who also happens to be director Clement Virgo’s wife. To its credit it tackles the lust vs esteem angle reasonably well.
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For our protagonist Leila, life is one sexual encounter after another, free of emotional attachment, free of commitment, free of like. It opens with a naked Leila (the elegant Lauren Lee Smith) alone on the couch, masturbating while watching a porn video. There is no major dialogue until at least 10 minutes into the film and even then it is elegant banal if not trite, reflecting in a device the shallowness of these individuals. Director Virgo notes that he was trying to manufacture a visual film as opposed to a talkie. And visually, it is beautifully shot. Leila goes to a party, meets David (Eric Balfour), with whom she feels an instant and mutual attraction. However he is with his girlfriend, Victoria (Polly Shannon) . So she snares another lucky male whom she proceeds to bl__ and fu__ in the parking lot, in bulky thought of David and his girlfriend, who naturally do the same thing, both couples more keen in the opposite pair than in their maintain partners. David of course is enthralled with Leila and hooks up with her. They have sex. Then they have more sex. And that’s all they have. They don’t really have a relationship. They don’t communicate. They objective copulate. Like rutting animals. Throughout the film, sex is depicted as mechanical, selfish and purely physical and although arousing, it is emotionally empty. The main impression I was left with was one of emptiness, hollowness and how dim these people were, physically connecting yet mentally and emotionally all alone. So distinguished so that when David’s ailing father whom he’s been dotingly caring for dies, Leila cannot empathise, noteworthy less give solace. And neither is David of distinguished wait on when Leila struggles with her parents’ contain breakup.
Luckless girlfriend Victoria (Polly Shannon) is, for me anyway, the most sympathetic character here. Of the three she is the only one with any insight into their relationship. She is also given some of the more memorable lines in the movie. During her confrontation with Leila, she warns him against David, “He’s got intimacy issues. He needs a mommy,” and more cruelly but to the point, “You can suck a guy’s dick all you want. It doesn’t mean he’s ever gonna cherish you.” She may be cast as the “other” woman but you can’t assist sympathising with her and thinking that she’s better off rid of him. Virgo’s need to have a “delighted ending” where the characters advance together after realising their savor for each other is simply not convincing. It’s hard to occupy that these self-absorbed, narcissistic personalities could suddenly compose the insight to portray to someone, other than on a purely sensual level. The uncommon result is that, apart from the sex scenes, the movie when viewed as a whole, has a graceful depressing feel to it. Smooth, quibbles about the film aside, the sex scenes are not in the least bit disappointing. In fact, they are hot. Very worthy so. They are a lot more erotically arousing than in the bulk of porn material shot today which is so clinically anatomical as to no longer be erotic.
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Although the DVD is unrated, it would most likely merit an NC-17. The sex scenes are as conclude to hardcore as you can pick up without it being X-rated. The missing elements are the money-shots and scenes of dependable penetration. Otherwise everything else is there, honest down to Leila playfully handling David’s cramped thingie.
Lauren Lee Smith is delicate to seek at and a very splendid actress. It took guts to do what she did here and I hope it pays off for her in the future. She should be in more films if only she could obtain time in between shooting “The L Word.” In the commentary, director Virgo and Smith discuss how they first met when he directed her in her first lesbian scene in “The L Word.”
The film has been beautifully transferred to DVD in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio (enhanced for widescreen TV) . The film as we learn in the commentary was shot on Dapper 16mm so there is a runt graininess throughout as would be expected from this medium. Otherwise it looks fine. Colors are vibrantly rich, shaded levels are accurately position, the golden summer palette that Virgo chooses for the film comes through handsomely. Sound comes in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 Stereo. Dialogue is recorded at a very crude level and is at times barely audible while the pounding music from the nightclub scenes are overwhelmingly loud. Rather like a porn video. I was constantly reaching for the remote to raise and lower the volume. There is an accompanying trailer, a photo gallery and of course the commentary by director Clement Virgo and Lauren Lee Smith who breaks into infectious laughter whenever she’s asked to comment on her sex scenes. There is however no gradual the scenes footage as advertised by Amazon. In the ruin, it may not count as a truly thought-provoking or even very credible film but it is arousingly delicious nonetheless. From the other reviews here, I pick it most viewers will be seeing it for the sex. So, as far as the star ratings go: Five stars for the sizzling hot sex and for Lauren Lee Smith, three and a half for the movie itself.
* SPOILER ALERT: This review reveals key elements of the set *
I liked it. But it didn’t resonate with me like the first five minutes promised it would. When the movie began, I felt Leila, the anti-heroine, promising me, “You will characterize to me.”
At first I did. The blankness in her eyes as she went out to secure what she both needed and hated I had felt myself too many times. When Leila and David were playing their cat-and-mouse game, the “I’ll expose you mine if you exhibit me yours,” they both seemed six years old: emotionally, they both are. Things began to procure uneasy for me as the viewer.
The next seventy percent or so of the movie was filled with more sex than you can shake an, er, stick at, and nothing about that bothered me (especially Eric Balfour’s totally nude body) . When the relationship between Leila and David began to unravel, it became apparent to me that both of them likely were diagnosable borderlines, a personality disorder, and from that point, my hopes for a successful resolution to the movie were nil. Would they live happily ever after? Would they continue their cycle of alternating emotional abuse? How would the movie ruin?
Ultimately, the ending DIDN’T satisfy, as I was alarmed it wouldn’t, but then, wasn’t the whole movie about NOT being tickled?
Director Clément Virgo’s expend of harsh lighting, hasty panning, and indecent closeups is very effective in this film. I would think watching some of his other work, but I’m not obvious whether I’d recommend this one on its smart merits. On its more visceral merits, however, it fits the bill almost as well as Larry Clark’s Ken Park.
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Adam Vazquez