Sex Weather

They knew each other from making films, and after too much drinking wound up in bed together come morning. He is ready to leave, but can't find his phone. Apparently he may have left it in a car, but she can't get in touch with the driver, as he isn't answering, so he can't leave until there is an answer, and she says it is fine to stay, as her shoot is later in the night, so she has all day. So they spend the day really talking. They try to get to know each other and about each other in relationship to each other. So they go beyond the superficial things that often result in a first date becoming no second date. When she gets the message that his phone is found, he still has time before his flight, so he doesn't have to leave right away. But then it turns out she has a secret. Neither of them have had good relationships, so feelings come hard for each. Unexpected twist at the end, but perhaps should have been expected. They did use scenes of the world outside of her apartment to denote the passage of time. It got a bit obvious after awhile.

Loved the chemistry between the two characters right from the start. Storyline gets more serious as they both eventually hook up and then things change forever. What a film, nice ending also.

I didn't want to rate it because there are things in it that offend and things in it that are manipulatively emotionally intense. A very far from perfect viewer watched it. As usual, when a black man and white woman are involved in a romance, Hollywood doesn't want to call it a romance. One gets the impression that the couple had to cheat to appreciate their mutually exclusive relationships. That is how it is written. The writing does its job of drawing you in and keeping you engaged, whether you like the movie or not. Despite my imperfections, I'd like that emotion to be contained in a proper marriage no matter the color of the participants, but despite everything, this movie is a romance. There are many movies like this that have an all white cast. They are offensive too. They are forbidden. In the midst of all that, they are all called romance mivies. So is this one. There have been many straight and narrow romance movies but next to none of them feature a black man and white woman, because Hollywood is too offended by that. Hollywood needs to grow up. Let's not be more offended by the color combo than we are by cheating.

Judging by the synopsis and the DVD cover art, you may be inclined (as I was) to think that this is just a cheap sexy film. To my surprise, that was not the case at all.

Much like the Spanish language movie "En la Cama", Sex Weather is a romantic gesture of two souls connecting by spending the day together and talking (okay, they do have sex as well). But what I really liked was that the dialogue was quite fun throughout. In the end, Sex Weather ended up being quite a romantic film.

For a movie that mainly only features two characters for the entire runtime, Al'Jaleel McGhee and Amber Stonebraker do a fine job and the growing chemistry between the two is absolutely well portrayed. It reminds of that whimsical time at the start of a relationship where one could just talk all day and hang on to each other's every word.

Other points of note are that Sydney and Darrel are an interracial couple, which still isn't exactly the norm when it comes to cookie-cutter romantic movies, especially the ones that come out of Hollywood. I mean it's always a Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant or a Mathew Mcconaughey and Kate Hudson - but never a Daniel Kaluuya and Scarlett Johansson because that's waaaaay too risky. So this was a nice little change up.

It also doesn't hurt that Amber Stonebraker looks a lot like Katy Perry in this movie.

Overall, Sex Weather was way better than I expected, and I could have actually watched this with my partner on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

There is something special here that never quite gets realized. Aspirational film-making is not something to be ashamed of nor is being able to eek out a quality product from sparsely more than a shoe-string budget: this movie reeks of both. The actors seem to be working at the extremes of their skill and each almost(!) deliver. The nudity (particularly male, but also in general) is surprisingly explicit, but is also comical and casual enough that it never feels gratuitous. This, combined with the plot's focus on the fleeting nature of 'falling in love' juxtaposed against the tasks of commitment and struggle inherent to serious long-term relationships make Sex Weather feel relevant in some way. The decision to cast an interracial couple is bound to be an attention-getter...and I wish the movie would just delve into this factor of the character's differing identities instead of making them seem mostly culturally identical. Ultimately, the almost bipolar shifts in emotion displayed by the characters in the course of a 24 hour period really highlights the state of many relationships in 2017 (when the movie was made) till today. All in all, the director, writers and actors have definitely showed they have something to offer and perhaps will deliver more of it in their next respective projects.