Strictly Sexual

I've seen a lot of love-movies. Most of them follow the exact same pattern, inherit with the category. Don't get me wrong, this one does too. But, it gets across that with a insightful script. The set-up is as follows: Two women, living together, decides they need to get laid and go to a bar frequented by male prostitutes. Two construction workers planning to drink some free drinks and skipping the tab are there, they are picked up and love-story follows. And had it been most movies it would've ended there, and a rating around 5 would be fair. But the script opens up to a wide variety of actual situations and problems relationships run into, with twists of course, but this story keeps trying to portray real relationships and succeeds for the most part in doing so. It has a witty and smart dialog, unexpected turns and overall quality that gets me thinking and recognizing situations. The characters start out as the typical placeholders in romantic films, but end up growing on you and evolving beyond the type and into real, very likable but flawed people. If I'd compare it to other movies I'd say it's a cross between Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Closer.

thank god Hollywood (or i guess this is an indie) finally made a movie that shows LOVE like it really is. Painful, infuriating, fun, sad, wonderful. of course i am a woman but not prone to being emo, yet i found myself crying at the end. hard to explain, you have to see it, but it makes you feel okay about falling in love and falling out of love to. highly recommend this movie to men and women. (watched it with my boyfriend and i caught him sniffling at the end too, i swear, he never does that). i heard this director had won the independent spirit award, now i know why. sort of like "the notebook" with comedy, but not goofy comedy, maybe more like "annie hall", or the English movie "love, actually". also very much like "sex and the city" but also the guy's point of view mixed in. can you tell i loved this movie?

It's a really great movie, okay maybe not great as in top 250 but really good then. It's about camaraderie between friends and about love between people.

The movie is about Joe and Stanny, two construction workers from Queens who find themselves in LA looking for work, and Donna and Chriti, a writer and a designer. At a nice hotel bar, Donna and Christi are looking for male prostitutes where Joe and Stanny are just looking to get drunk. They meet and the story takes of.

This would be something I'd see alone or with my date/girlfriend, maybe even with my friends but most of them would probably give this movie a 3-4. I gave it an 8, it's a kind of a feel good movie. If you tear up easily or occasionally you probably need something to wipe those with. As I said I really liked it..

Thanks again to the IMDb community, since this film came to me via a fellow reviewer in the US – currently on this site it has no UK release date so I suspect I may never have seen it otherwise. However this is not thanks for the quality of the film – only of the gesture. Strictly Sexual has a provocative title and a plot that matches it. It starts with a rather abrupt "future" scene before flashing back to the origins of the story. At this point it has a fun fizz to it that carries you along despite the sheer unlikeliness of the narrative – the gloss and the rather contained nature of it makes it quite engaging.

The problems with it come once this early fizz has settled down a little bit. At stage the film starts to become more of a dramatic affair with the playing out of the drama that inherently comes with any "casual" relationship. In itself this is engaging enough but it never totally rings true and I always felt like I was watching a film with actors in it – it never sucked me into these relationships or gave me things that I could see were real. I have to put this at the door of the script because it is here where this problem comes from. Ultimately it comes down to being a romantic drama but when it is doing the "drama" part, it distracts but never moves.

I don't put this on the cast though because they do as well as they can with the material. The women are the stronger but this may be because they have the dominant characters. Benson does a good job with her character, allowing her to be difficult to understand and a bit conflicted in her signals but yet also keeps her open to the viewer. Kerr has to carry the romance side of the drama and she does this with beauty, lightness and a delicate performance that isn't brilliant but is just what the film needs. I found Long a little heavy in the role and I confess that I though he would have been better handing off to someone else and stick as writer. He is OK though and he works well with Urb, who is a bit too much of a pretty boy but works well with Kerr. The film contains the action really well and the tight focus on these 4 in a handful of locations gives the film a really good feel of watching an intimate play – shame that the material doesn't get as impacting or meaningful as this proximity deserves.

Strictly Sexual is an OK film but it is not as amazing as some here would suggest. The intimate delivery and sexual fizz of the material doesn't transition well when it gets more serious and, when it should suck the viewer in, it only really retains the superficial air that it started with. This is a shame because, while the film feels like it should be better, it ultimately doesn't have the reality and substance that I found myself wanting.

I was lucky enough to see an advance screening of this film earlier in the year and it absolutely rocks. It's an edgy, hilarious, ultimately charming romantic comedy. The script, direction and ensemble cast are terrific. Amber Benson delivers what might be the most nuanced performance of her career. Newcomer (and screenwriter) Stevie Long steals scenes in a performance on par with Jon Favreau in Swingers. The structure of the film is reminiscent of Woody Allen's work, particularly Annie Hall and Manhattan, but with a hip, updated feel. The film has been a huge hit in Europe and I hope that carries over in the U.S. Highly recommended! Jason Starr, author of THE FOLLOWER and TWISTED CITY.