as a story it was decent, if strictly
heterocentric and also improbable (but since when is improbable in itself a problem, right?). the title is ironic; the film actually offers some refreshing takes on love and sexuality (though it seems to lose any ground it gains during
intercut "men on relationships" and "women on relationships" counseling sessions. on the other hand, this could simply be a reflection on how we are generally socialized to view the opposite sex and not the opinions of those who made the film. after all, what is said during this scene calls into question a lot of the simple binary assumptions we've been led to make about the four characters [2 men and 2 women], and the advice that is given is shown to be ineffective later in the movie.
ok i've changed my mind, there is a net progress regarding gender stereotypes) i agree with the
netflix reviewer who mentioned that a serious re-edit would do this some good, and i found some of the dialogue a bit "intro to fiction" sounding. some scenes, however, did achieve the recognizable realism that the entire movie was struggling towards: i.e. the scene where
stannie describes his strained (now non-existent) relationships with his parents. it sounds convincing, his somewhat careful, slightly vague (but absolutely effective) in-a-nutshell description of why he and his family mutually opted out of keeping in contact when he was a teenager, and it lays a good foundation for our understanding of what happens to his relationship with
donna. overall, though, this is another case of the movie being less interesting than the life of the movie - it has been released almost solely on the
internet, streaming on
netflix and
hulu, and through those channels has managed to make 10 times it's production budget thus far. it may be a landmark in film distribution, but certainly is not one in
filmmaking or storytelling. read the press on "strictly sexual", but skip seeing it unless you don't find less-than-good acting or hurried plot climaxes distracting.
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