Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore

I really enjoyed this film. I felt that _Mary Jane_ perfectly portrayed issues about sexuality. I liked the juxtapositions of real life scenes of sex with discussion and portrayal of 'movie sex scenes.' I thought that the plot line was really good, but that it was occasionally difficult to watch because of the rough way that the film was shot. Many of the scenes were really dark. then again, it was done on the cheap, and an admirable job was done all in all.

Finally, an honest portrayal of a slice of life. Something that won't ever come out of Hollywood.

A sex-positive feminist punk-rock coming-of-age story. Way lo-fi and very charming. The performances are uneven at times but the script is really funny and rings very true. It's the most unsentimental and realistic portrayal of sexual awakening that I've ever seen. Like a low-budget "Slums of Beverly Hills," only far better.

While I agree the screenwriting isn't the greatest, for the period in which it was released, it has very progressive views. Very open-minded for the mid 90's, and sadly, even today. It showed same sex relationships, single parenthood, female sexuality, sexual harassment and more without judgment or stereotypical characters in a time where that was taboo and unthinkable.

So I knew nothing of this film or its director Sarah Jacobson coming into this viewing at MoMA, but thought I'd check it out. Many of the criticisms leveled against the film are true. The script is weak, as are most of the technical aspects of it. The characters mostly represent archetypes and much of the dialogue is eye-rolling. However, to this films credit I actually worked in a movie theater and also moved to NYC in my twenties and I distinctly remember people just like these characters in the film also saying equally fatalistic, clueless, nonsensical things. To that I must give some credit where it is due, which leads me to think that it is the direction that lets the film down? Not sure about that but I will say that for as much bad as this film contains I'm happy that I decided to check it out, and while it's clearly not for everyone, it just might be worth it for those still curious.