Where has this movie been all my life? This is comedy of the Anchorman/40-Year-Old Virgin/Dodgeball caliber, only from the female perspective, and stars one of the funniest females in SNL's history, Victoria Jackson. She plays her usual naive and slightly ditzy blonde, and who is desperately afraid of sex--particularly in contrast with her fast friend, played by Lea Thompson. It took me off guard one tired evening after work. As I paged through the OnDemand free movie list I saw the name. I remembered it from when I was a kid. Of course, at eight-years-old I was a far cry from witnessing an R-rated movie, but it filled me with intrigue! Last year I saw another movie from my childhood that was strictly forbidden, Michael J. Fox in Bright Lights, Big City, and though it didn't turn out to be particularly great, it was a thrill to finally see this thing that at one point I never could. So that's the setup for Casual Sex?, the title of which was alone enough for mom and dad to impose a viewing ban.
And for good reason: the story follows two sexually frustrated women in the midst of an AIDS-scared, women's-lib dating world. Again and again they talk about safe sex, using a condom--which they had never done before (!), and even follows Stacy (Lea Thompson) into an AIDS clinic for test results. Stacy is a serial mother figure for her boyfriends, always enabling their life goals over her own, and using sex as a means for intimacy. While Melissa (Victoria Jackson) is practically frightened to death of men, finally settling for (then breaking up with) a finance who bloats himself on the couch while watching sports all afternoon. Neither are in fulfilling relationships, so to cure their sexual/emotional impasse with men they jaunt to a health resort for an extended holiday, a singles holiday.
Gorgeous 80s athletic wear (think fluorescent high-cut bikinis), teased hair, and a lot of hunky muscle-bound men parade about the resort grounds. The ladies, forced to drink bitter mineral water, exercise rigorously, and carry on mind dulling conversations with a greasy street jock named Vinny (Andrew Dice Clay), make for a smirky peek at the female psyche. Based on a stage play of the same title, this self-aware story opens asking for direct audience engagement with their first-person camera address. Mostly the women ask you to take them with a grain of salt, but to take them nonetheless as they mockingly meander through their personal anxieties and sexual absurdities.
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