Young People F***ing @ the Canadian Film Festival
November 30th 2008 23:15
Like Roger Ebert, I find the title of this film to belie the depth and maturity with which it deals with sex in the modern age, a resoundingly amusing film that offers no lessons, but deals frankly with the most important of subjects.
Indeed, the title of this Canadian film, directed by Martin Gero, has forced me to flag this post as not-Family Friendly, because it's called "Young People Fucking". Despite the offensiveness of the title, the subject matter, though adult-oriented, is certainly shyer than some Hollywood movies, and there's little gratuitous nudity.
I like this movie. I like it because of the subject matter, which is people having sex. Perhaps I like it even more because of what it shows us about sex: young people fucking. The work 'fuck' has lost a lot of its power, and my generation is happy to sling it around like a casual expletive, altering the meaning of the word so often that it rarely means sexual intercourse.
"Young People Fucking" shows us five sexual pairings, labelled as stereotypes: The Exes, The Friends, The Couple, The Roommates and The First Date. The movie intercuts between the five encounters as title cards announce the phases of the evening: prelude, foreplay, sex, interlude, orgasm and afterglow.
It seems complicated, but you'll get the swing of it soon enough. It seems like this could be a ramp-up to softcore pornography, but the meat of the film becomes apparent enough, and, in fact, shows us the tragedy of the modern age, a time that has brought confusions about sex.
Sex used to be simpler, I think. Well, at least, gender roles were strictly defined 100 years ago, and we've been eroding that structure since then. With equality comes confusion, it appears, as all of the young people in this movie seem to struggle with this simplest of acts.
It's an amusing film, one that allows us to laugh at the idiosyncrasies of the participants; with The Friends, as he's getting a blowjob from his best female friend, the guy looks down and says:
"Don't look at me when you do that.... I'm very aware that [my friend[ has my cock in her mouth!"
She is a beautiful, sexy woman, and there seems to be no reason why any heterosexual male would not love this act of physical union - but there it is. They've drawn a line between them, and crossing it takes effort.
"Young People Fucking" is not a film that'll be savoured as a cinematic masterpiece, though it is shot beautifully in soft, warm colours, with all the actors looking great, with natural bodies in a cozy focus. Personally, I think we should have more films like this because of what it stands for - an intimate look at what nice Canadians do behind closed doors.
You'll never know that your friend, brother, sister, neighbour or teacher is a freak until they show you. That's the real tragedy of the film - everyone has an issue, and they're reluctant to speak about them, making sexual adventure and intimacy out of reach, despite the actual physical encounter that occurs.
I say: See it and enjoy it. It's amusing for the entire runtime, and there's very little preaching, though a lot of dialogue for a movie about sex. Well, that's what sex has become in cinema, I suppose.
See it for: Natural looking women, with gorgeous soft bodies, including Diora Baird and Carly Pope.
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