alt.sex

I first saw this movie in 2002, after reading the filmmaker's journal, which chronicles its production. I was pretty unimpressed.

In 2005 I showed the film to some friends of mine. They spent the whole time laughing and making jokes about how much the movie sucked. One of them described it as "the world's longest sitcom." This year I watched the film again, and my opinion is mostly the same.

The acting and jokes are horrendous. The movie tries very hard to be funny, but a lot of the comedy comes from old hacky gags everyone has heard before. Anyone who uses "Got Milk?" as a punchline isn't as funny as they think they are.

The actors are all well aware they are in a comedy, and overact every line. The funniest guy in the cast is probably the boss. Maybe it's because he doesn't have many lines, and thus didn't get a chance to ham it up. The lead actor resembles a transvestite George Lucas. He dresses in rags and sounds like Louie Anderson. My friends still make references to this.

The story is a familiar tale, but it's told in a fairly original way. It kept my attention, and isn't very predictable. It also doesn't always make sense. I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't already read the director's blog, prior to seeing the film, I wouldn't have understood the intended comedic effect of some scenes.

Technically, Alt.sex is pretty solid. It's shot on Super 16 film, is well edited, and has a good soundtrack. Comedy wise, it's not so great. There's a difference between being funny enough to get laughs at the office and being funny enough to get millions of people to see your film. Still, I recommend reading the director's production blog and checking out the film for free on Youtube. Despite my harsh criticism, Alt. Sex is actually pretty watchable.