Orgies and the Meaning of Life

The fact that there are more comments than votes should tell you something about the film.

No, this is not the worst film I've ever seen. Then again it is far from being mediocre - on the wrong side of mediocre. Better ways of wasting your time might be to see Eraserhead or Pink Flamingos. (These two are actually worse but have the benefit of cult status.)

You gotta think that there's gotta be a reason why the IMDb plot summary is signed Anonymous. They let anyone write comments!

If the people associated with the film aren't ashamed to have their names listed in the credits, why would a commenter hide behind Anonymous?

A truly interesting movie, albeit very much low budget. It is an art piece to be sure - more about ideas than story. Especially ideas about shame and intimacy. Some of the supporting women are superb and I wish the director would have focused a little more on their development as characters. The score is also very good (thanks in part to Peter Stormare of FARGO fame - who has a terrific cameo). His character could have also used another scene or two. The animation - for the most part - is quite good, and adds another layer of parallel to the main character's struggle. Although the movie is riddled with flaws, I liked it. And I would compare it to a walk through a gallery. Some very interesting pieces, others not so much. 7 out of 10.

Transgressive fiction; though unclear and incomplete. The idea was there, and so were the quotes. Gottfred should have just done the writing for the movie, and left the direction, production, and acting to one more adept. It's a real pity this is not a novel, as I always resort to novels when I'm unfulfilled by the movie (such as Choke). Poor acting and lack of communication with the viewer make the film a six by my standard. I dedicate myself to this type of movies, and the fact that I did not really get some of the things Gottfred intended to do suggests that the average viewer will have a much lesser chance. Yet, at end, I am glad I took the time to see the movie, many can get something out of it.

There's already several accountings of the plot here, so I won't add one. I like off-beat and quirky media and this film provides that. It does it with a nice, light and fun flair in my opinion. It's listed as a drama, but I'd put it into the dark comedy category. This film is worth watching. It's anything but pornographic and I don't think the writer/director ever intended it to be. I can't see inside someone's intent or try to pull meanings from so few words that someone's written here but it seems to me that some of the comments already posted either missed what I found to be the "meaning" in the film or perhaps I found my own meanings from it that the writer/director never intended. Whichever the case may be, simply put, I liked this film because it made me smile and reflect on my own thoughts and fantasies about life, sex, love(the One) and God. Any film, book or conversation that can do that is OK in my ledger.

This was a pretty flimsy film that tried for artsy and ended up as an excursion in confusion. It tries to be 'profound' and 'existential,' yet it is never for a moment convincing.

If you read the IMDb summary for this film, you'd think you were in for something really special, a once-in-a-lifetime examination of a young man's travail. The problem is, the gushing summary was submitted, word-for-word, through the film's website.

IMDb has to clean up its act. This flagrant 'puff-piece' by the film's principals and promoters should never have appeared on IMDb as an 'objective' summary of the film itself.

Basically, the story concerns a young man's desire to have his book published. It's a book about stick figures trying to find meaning that transcends orgies with real and imaginary women. The young man searches for 'The One,' which is shorthand for what mere mortals used to call 'a true love'. In this film, 'The One,' a hackneyed term at the best of times, becomes an over-inflated motif for bargain-basement philosophy. The film is little more than an examination of a man's angst in trying to find himself. Despite IMDb's unctuous, self-serving summary, there's nothing new here at all.

This is not an existential film. It's just another 'coming of age' flick that haughtily pretends it's something else.

I've said it before: IMDb very often cannot be trusted as a reliable source for film summaries and even criticism. Many of the people who give outrageously high ratings on the IMDb board are those who made the film and their myriad friends. At best, it's spectacularly misleading.