Wiggly Socks Movie Reviews

By Linda Winsh-Bolard


In five groups, The Friends, The Couple, The Exes, The First Date and The Roommates, and six separate chapters, Prelude, Foreplay, Sex, Interlude, Orgasm and Afterglow (some naturally longer than the others), the film follows the meanders of human relationships as a result of sex. Or, perhaps, part of the sexual act. Or maybe the sex is there to tie the story down. Or rather to bring the filmmakers names up to the big studio (can sex still do that?).

The groups live their "chapters' alone, there no interacting, their lives don't intersect and no inner, intricate development issues. Co-writer Aaron Abrams and Carly Pope play The Friends, who, being on and off in love with one another although never both at the same time, decide one night to sleep together. The Couple, played by Kristin Booth and Josh Dean, while still young no longer have much fun in the bedroom; a fact that bothers the girl more than the boy. The exes, Sonja Bennett and Josh Cooke, have decided to meet and have sex with no strings. And in the First Date young woman (Diora Baird) seduces, and is seduced by, notorious, womanizer played by Callum Blue.

The sex is unsatisfactory but explicit. It is also almost totally pointless. While tracing minutely the small and larger embarrassments of pre and post coital situations, it remains as detached and observatory as a camera can ever be. None of the explicit acts, which take forever to be completed, as are constantly interrupted by what can only be described as human factor, will get you excited. Hence it is not nearly as shocking as you might expect. There is albeit also very little to laugh about. As it takes the five not quite couples nearly 90 minutes to get done, few laughs would be more than welcome. The setting is here to represent the different ways sex is treated, and each couple, while remaining in the expected, is supposed to deviate from the obvious just enough to get glimpse at something new about themselves, and that glimpse should provide you with a new insight. Good luck with that if you older than 20.

Obviously, there are no big names and no big studios trapping. The camera is adequate but expected, so are the characters. For most part they are inoffensive in their parts. There are no big jumps in their characters. When a counter partner in the fun exposes the sexual liar, it is as far as the novelty and the acting goes. As far as chemistry goes, oh well, it is not about being irresistible.

First-time feature director Martin Gero and writer Aaron Abrams opted for dialog driven film; considering the financial restrains possibly a wise choice. It often sounds genuine, if rarely funny. The expected tension of a voyeur is completely absent, it is almost clinical analysis of what the creators expect is driving people to sex; apparently there is nothing titillating about it. The expectation tension between people who are about to go to bed together for first time is also missing, replaced by embarrassments. Each 'couple" is a prototype in stereotyped set up. All the people are young, all the women thin. And so on. The subject appears often enough in teenage movies, and obviously the director and writer aimed at making it an adult problem film. It is adult enough, yet it remains in the shallow end of teenage stories.

Directed by Martin Gero. Starring Aaron Abrams, Diora Baird, Sonja Bennett, Callum Blue, Kristin Booth, Josh Cooke, Josh Dean, Ennis Esmer, Natalie Lisinska and Carly Pope.