Cyber Society is Basis For Losing it in Funny ‘The Virginity Hit’

Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – A great percentage of the population inevitably gets to the moment in their life when co-mingling becomes the next phase of interaction – the loss of virginity. Despite braggadocio to the contrary, for most people it is fraught with a bit of the undiscovered country. “The Virginity Hit” mines that territory with some cyber-age big brotherism thrown in.

Shot in an authentic looking documentary style, The Virginity Hit refers to a bong ritual that four close friends – all using there real names in the film – indulge in when they finally fulfill their first sexual conquest. Matt (Bennett) is the last one to achieve this end, and his adoptive brother Zack (Pearlman) decides to chronicle the big event for YouTube. Jacob (Davich) and Justin (Kline) go along for the “ride,” which involves Matt’s longtime girlfriend Nicole (Weaver). They have dated for two years and decide it is finally time.

The set-up includes an elaborate date that Matt sets up for the big night, which is suddenly cast in disarray by the revelation that Nicole might had cheated on him. He’s hurt, but decides to go through the bedroom ritual at a hotel and spring the revelation on her at an appropriate moment, while Zach and the gang record the action in an adjoining suite. The result is a disaster, with Nicole and Matt breaking up, and Nicole’s father beating up Matt in front of the hotel (duly posted on YouTube).

Although he is distraught, Matt’s plight becomes an internet sensation, with outrageous replies to his situation and an offer to take care of his “first time” by a concerned cyber-gal. Matt jumps at the offer, and his buddies pitch in to fulfill all the requirements the woman has in order to make it work out. Meanwhile Zack is filming everything, including side trips involving Matt’s biological father, his adopted sister and the strange discomfort of meeting the his potential first-timer.

Very Candid Camera: Zack Pearlman, Sunny Leone and Matt Bennett in ‘The Virginity Hit’ Photo Credit: Scott Salzman for © Columbia Pictures

This wild flight of fancy ends up with an involvement with a stripper/porn star (real-life porn star Sunny Leone), more slapstick-like violence from Nicole’s father and a decision regarding what becomes the most important element of losing one’s innocence. Brought to you by the purveyors of voyeurism called the internet, with support from a major film company.

There was a balance that was most impressive in this somewhat delicate subject. The boys certainly had a easy time of finding available woman for their conquests, but all of them had a backlash to be dealt with, and oftentimes that became relatable and very funny. The boys also live in an America where material goods and services seem readily available, and the film makes a point on what teenagers can have in a situation like that. It’s a damn good and hilarious time.

The cast plays it for all its worth, perhaps having an easier time because they’re playing themselves. Zack Pearlman is the comic highlight, taking Jonah Hill lessons in being the smarmy zaftig comic presence. He is larger than life in his role as filmmaker, enjoying the humiliation in a broad and energetic way. Matt Bennett is a little more tentative as the virgin, but has some fantastic moments, including the wait for the woman who volunteers to be his first time.

The girls are refreshingly audacious in this one, more sexually confident (probably as a mollifier to the subject matter) in many ways than the boys. The scene with Sunny Leone as the stripper/porn star is great theater and the result is appropriately strange, even questionable in its use as a solution to get back at the wayward girlfriend. Boys will be boys, and they are even more boyish when hoping to lose it.

First Cut is the Deepest: Nicole Walker and Matt Bennett in ‘The Virginity Hit’ Photo Credit: Patti Perret for © Columbia Pictures

Delving further, The Virginity Hit is also great commentary on the current social cyber-scene, where nothing is real unless shown to others on the internet. This allows the personal humiliation of the attempt for the ultimate score that much more freaky, with the planet potentially being able to weigh in on what used to be revealed long afterward and with several drinks. If that isn’t social and cultural evolution, what is?

This is an impressive, interesting and knowingly witty film that is straight out of modern times. Like everything else, the notion of innocence lost is fodder for the cyber-media beast and it’s no wonder it just becomes another occasion to take a celebratory bong hit.

[14]	By PATRICK McDONALD [15] Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com [14]