Acting Out (1978) User Reviews

A time capsule

[Ton_O · 8/10 · 22 December 2007]

A strange documentary kind of film that could only have been made in the 1970's. A number of people are invited do tell the filmmakers what their ultimate sexual desire would be, after which they are given a chance to actually have these played out for real, with the help of porn Robert Kerman (who is know by serious filmfanatics for his part in Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust), amongst others. It turns out that these (real) people have (really) weird fantasies ranging from being abused by medics while being operated upon to something as predictable as a guy wishing do experience a threesome. What is so stunning about this documentary is that we learn that even in the wild years of free love people simply couldn't handle this freedom because the desires they have turn out do be as disappointing as they are weird. It turns out that only the guy with the least ridiculous wishes (the threesome with two girls) actually enjoyed the experience. It seems that then and now people always want do make more of sex that there actually is. For this alone it is an interesting film to watch. We get to see the entire process, from people being selected in the street, them telling about their desires and the action out, all rounded out by their commentaries on the experiences. All of this with very straight faces and surprisingly little gratuitous nudity, giving the viewer the impression that a scientific research to all this was the goal, and not to get as much as cheap nude scenes as possible, which of course is nonsense but makes for extremely fun viewing. A time capsule like this would probably have been lost forever if it wasn't for a company named Troma. Recommended.

Documentary? Bah.

[talkpingp1 · 29 July 2008]

Real People? Are you kidding? Some of the "real" people in this film were NOT chosen at random. Some were in the porn business at the time. NOT a documentary. Some may have been friends of friends shall we say? But many were people known quite well to the producers of the film (in advance). It's all fabricated. That doesn't mean it may not be fun. But to call this a documentary is just far from the truth. A mock(?)documentary isn't an accurate description either however. Oh well. Enjoy. Or not. But remember what it really is. And what is with this 10 line rule that IMDb has now? Some films, like this, are really not worth commenting on at length.