(THINKFilm/AI Entertainment)

The title cheapens the effect, but not much

At the 2007 Toronto Film Festival, Young People F***ing’s director Martin Gero hoped that the film would tackle a generation’s longing to separate complex emotions like love with basic sexual impulses. Hmmm, big call there. I’m pretty sure if 20 years of clichéd teen dramas have been unable to do this so far, a Canadian romantic comedy doesn’t have much chance either. The separate stories of five young archetypal couples (the married couple, the exes, the best friends, the first daters and room-mates) are told, divided up into the stages of sex – prelude, foreplay, afterglow and so on – with all the awkward social encounters these events entail. It’s not that the movie is trying to be too clever by itemising it all; in fact, it may even go in the opposite direction, patronizing the audience by alerting them of exactly what will happen. Temporarily ignoring the argument that if I put the five couples I knew into a story, none of them would be as attractive as the eleven people involved – yes, eleven, because the room-mates are in a threesome, of course – it’s actually not as bad as it should have been. However, despite the controversial film title, the movie falls down by being moderate and conservative. Dirty teens attracted by the profanity will be angry there isn’t more skin (but they always say that), while edgy young adults hoping to watch a funny yet poignant portrayal of laid-back sexual attitudes in the twenty-first century will turn away from the hit and miss dialogue.

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MITCH ALEXANDER

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