CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
Film Review: Cyber Society is Basis For Losing it in Funny ‘The Virginity Hit’
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.
Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
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.
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.
Written and directed by Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland. Rated “R”
Photo Credit: Scott Salzman for © Columbia Pictures |