This is a pretty cute coming-of-age flick which has been languishing in distributor purgatory for more than a year. An indy filmed in late 1999, it was hoped to be a summer youth comedy, ala American Pie, but it never managed to work out a US distribution deal, and it may still not have one. They are now talking on the official web site about releasing it in the summer of 2001 in the USA, even though it has already been playing for some months across the world.
They have some hot young names in the cast: Jaime Pressly (the major babe of "Poison Ivy 3"), Marissa Ribisi ("Grown Ups"; she's Giovanni's twin sister), Katherine Heigl ("Roswell")
And I like the concept. Matt is a college freshman, a virgin, a bright and sensitive kid but basically a dweeb. Early in the year he is trapped in an elevator with a girl during a blackout, they have a tremendous heartfelt discussion, they make love, but he never sees her face. When he wakes up, she's gone without a trace. Ignoring the fact that she would have left a note if she wanted to see him again, Matt knows that he's found his true love, and will have to find her. All he knows is that she resides in a certain dorm with 100 residents, so he has to concoct a series of ploys in order to gain admittance to the building and the trust of the girls. One of the girls becomes his accomplice, and between them they come up with two different plans. Sometimes Matt is the uniformed maintenance man who will take care of the girls dorm. Sometimes he's in drag as a woman.
In the course of the semester, he really learns a lot about women while searching for his honey. He learns so much that after his speech to 100 open windows, begging his secret lover to reveal her identity, she does not, but all the other hetero girls claim they were the one! He can basically have any of them, and he's come to like many of them during the year, but he's a romantic and an honorable man, so he continues his search for his true love.
Other salient points:
There isn't much flesh, but there is plenty of really dirty talk. Dora, the intellectual girl, likes to read Henry Miller and D.H, Lawrence out loud, for example, and the taboo "c" word appears in the reading, along with some very lustful situations! When the girls are completely at ease, when they are drunk and Matt is in drag, they tell some hilarious stories to each other. One night each of them shares her funniest stories about oral sex. I suppose there is a real risk of NC-17 in the USA, for the language, and for the fact that one of the girls is openly promiscuous, seduces Matt, and obviously is really into it, both with her speech and her hips. It was some darned good lovin', not movie sex at all, but real people getting used to each other and having problems, then working it out.
Matt's own roommate is a doofy misogynist who is into "penis power", a system in which he gradually ties larger and larger weights to his penis, to lengthen and strengthen it. And of course, there is the requisite evil dude who exploits women.
Believe it or not, it is an intelligent movie. Possibly too intelligent for this genre. In fact, the dialogue is probably too intelligent for this or any other genre. The characters actually talk in written English rather than spoken English, the kind of poetic rhapsodies that nobody is capable of in real life, not JFK or Churchill or anybody else. Matt's speech to the 100 open windows is the spiritual descendant of Kevin Costner's famous speech in Bull Durham, too articulate to really be off the cuff, and it has the same impact on all 100 girls that Costner's words had on Sarandon.
But I don't think we need to consider that a weakness. Let's just say that the movie walks a fine line between literate and literary, and sometimes it may cross over the line a bit too far, but you'll allow it because it isn't boring and it produces the desired effect. Hope they get a US distributor, and I hope they can get an r-rating, because I think a lot of young people will like this funny and sincere film.
I won't tell you it's a great work of genius, and I won't say it's a sure hit, but I think it deserves a chance to let the popular jury make that call. It has a strong pro-female stance in that it portrays women as the only real grown-ups in the world, and Matt's experience in drag really sensitizes him to how much abuse women have to tolerate, so it could reach out to a female audience, assuming the rough talk is OK with them.
Young guys should like it, and learn from it. Some of them will buy a ticket just to see Katherine Heigl playing enthusiastic foosball in her bra. And I predict they won't demand a refund.
They have some hot young names in the cast: Jaime Pressly (the major babe of "Poison Ivy 3"), Marissa Ribisi ("Grown Ups"; she's Giovanni's twin sister), Katherine Heigl ("Roswell")
And I like the concept. Matt is a college freshman, a virgin, a bright and sensitive kid but basically a dweeb. Early in the year he is trapped in an elevator with a girl during a blackout, they have a tremendous heartfelt discussion, they make love, but he never sees her face. When he wakes up, she's gone without a trace. Ignoring the fact that she would have left a note if she wanted to see him again, Matt knows that he's found his true love, and will have to find her. All he knows is that she resides in a certain dorm with 100 residents, so he has to concoct a series of ploys in order to gain admittance to the building and the trust of the girls. One of the girls becomes his accomplice, and between them they come up with two different plans. Sometimes Matt is the uniformed maintenance man who will take care of the girls dorm. Sometimes he's in drag as a woman.
In the course of the semester, he really learns a lot about women while searching for his honey. He learns so much that after his speech to 100 open windows, begging his secret lover to reveal her identity, she does not, but all the other hetero girls claim they were the one! He can basically have any of them, and he's come to like many of them during the year, but he's a romantic and an honorable man, so he continues his search for his true love.
Other salient points:
There isn't much flesh, but there is plenty of really dirty talk. Dora, the intellectual girl, likes to read Henry Miller and D.H, Lawrence out loud, for example, and the taboo "c" word appears in the reading, along with some very lustful situations! When the girls are completely at ease, when they are drunk and Matt is in drag, they tell some hilarious stories to each other. One night each of them shares her funniest stories about oral sex. I suppose there is a real risk of NC-17 in the USA, for the language, and for the fact that one of the girls is openly promiscuous, seduces Matt, and obviously is really into it, both with her speech and her hips. It was some darned good lovin', not movie sex at all, but real people getting used to each other and having problems, then working it out.
Matt's own roommate is a doofy misogynist who is into "penis power", a system in which he gradually ties larger and larger weights to his penis, to lengthen and strengthen it. And of course, there is the requisite evil dude who exploits women.
Believe it or not, it is an intelligent movie. Possibly too intelligent for this genre. In fact, the dialogue is probably too intelligent for this or any other genre. The characters actually talk in written English rather than spoken English, the kind of poetic rhapsodies that nobody is capable of in real life, not JFK or Churchill or anybody else. Matt's speech to the 100 open windows is the spiritual descendant of Kevin Costner's famous speech in Bull Durham, too articulate to really be off the cuff, and it has the same impact on all 100 girls that Costner's words had on Sarandon.
But I don't think we need to consider that a weakness. Let's just say that the movie walks a fine line between literate and literary, and sometimes it may cross over the line a bit too far, but you'll allow it because it isn't boring and it produces the desired effect. Hope they get a US distributor, and I hope they can get an r-rating, because I think a lot of young people will like this funny and sincere film.
I won't tell you it's a great work of genius, and I won't say it's a sure hit, but I think it deserves a chance to let the popular jury make that call. It has a strong pro-female stance in that it portrays women as the only real grown-ups in the world, and Matt's experience in drag really sensitizes him to how much abuse women have to tolerate, so it could reach out to a female audience, assuming the rough talk is OK with them.
Young guys should like it, and learn from it. Some of them will buy a ticket just to see Katherine Heigl playing enthusiastic foosball in her bra. And I predict they won't demand a refund.