Sex Is Comedy (2002)
4/10
Boring and pretentious
14 November 2013
Boring and pretentious is not a good combination for a film. Unfortunately that is the combination we get with Sex Is Comedy. It is a film in which nothing ever happens. Seriously, nothing. A bunch of talk (about nothing), then more talk (still about nothing) as the film slogs along, boring you to tears. The whole time director Catherine Breillat, who is essentially making a movie about herself making another movie, beats you over the head with how powerful the subject matter is. Except it is not powerful at all. It's a movie about a director struggling to film a sex scene. This is not nearly as grave a matter as Breillat would have you believe. It's a "look at me" effort from the director, trying to impress upon you just how important she is. She's not as important as she thinks. And she has ended up making a rather terrible movie. Movies which take a look at the making of movies are usually pretty interesting, especially for serious film fanatics. This film has a few telling behind the scenes moments but overall it does not work. There is just not enough interesting stuff going on here to hold your attention.

The movie is barely over 90 minutes long but it seems interminable, dragging painfully all the way through. It is a film which never sparks to life. The central character, the director, is passionate about making her film but we never truly feel that passion. In playing the role Anne Parillaud, who is essentially playing Breillat herself, leaves you cold. Meanwhile Grégoire Colin, playing the film within the film's stubborn actor, is quite terrible. Only Roxane Mesquida, playing the actress, comes away with any credit at all but honestly she has very little to do. The whole film is Parillaud and Colin, the director and actor, talking and talking and talking and never actually accomplishing anything. These two are constantly bickering back and forth about the big sex scene which is treated as if it is the most important endeavor in human history. When your boring film is building up to nothing more than the filming of a sex scene you're in trouble. There's no chance the ending will redeem all the drivel which preceded it. Sex Is Comedy is a very limp effort from a director who is not nearly as big a deal as she thinks she is.
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