Review by Harvey Karten
2½ stars out of 4
Self-help books seems always to be on the top of nonfiction
best-seller lists, read presumably by people who don't feel like
shelling out $150 an hour for psychoanalysis. Do they work?
Some swear by them, others say either no way or accuse the
writers of being hypocrites. "Amy's Orgasm" is a short, slight bit
of fluff which develops only the title character, an entertaining
feature but one lacking in originality and trying its best to fill out
its brief 85 minutes with a one-joke premise. Its success as a
picture depends wholly on Julie Davis, who is its eponymous
star, its writer and its director and whose previous low-budget
pic, "I Love You, Don't Touch Me!" appears missing from
Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide.
Thematically, Davis's discourse will be appreciated most by
men and women who believe that the ultra-feminist notion "you
can be complete without men in your life" is not only baloney but
a hypocritical stance by authors and spokespersons seeking
fame, publicity, money and stature. Celebrated 29-year-old
author Amy (Julie Davis) is certainly reveling in fame and
fortune, besieged by autograph seekers and interview programs
to such an extent that her publicist, Janet (Caroline Aaron),
considers Amy to be her full-time job. When Amy, who
admittedly has not had sex in four years and is not particularly
pleased about her condition winds up dating a Howard-Stern
type radio commentator who usually raps to women only about
t&a, she becomes convinced that everything she has written is a
lie. Off screen Matthew Starr (Nick Chinlund) is nothing like his
on the air character and, in fact, likes chamber music concerts
more than exhibitions at the local strip parlor. When Amy falls
in love with him and he, cautious that he may about admitting it,
digs her, both characters reach new epiphanies.
While women are still from Venus and men from Mars as
shown by a subplot involving Amy's favorite pals Don (Mitchell
Whitfield) and Elizabeth (Jennifer Bransford)--Davis appears to
believe that the planets can meet up and be all the better for it.
Sitcomish to a fault albeit more risque than the shows you'll
find even on afternoon soaps "Amy's Orgasm" has the now-
almost-obligatory ribbing of the Catholic Church, with a not-so-
neutral priest (Jeff Cesario) listening to and getting turned on by
the Jewish woman's confessions regular confessions. The pace
is mach 2, making up in part for its shallow exploration with
breakneck speed. Davis also throws in the usual silly-parents
motif and ties up loose ends just fine, leaving the audience with
a smile and, a few hours later the query, "What was that movie
we saw tonight?"
Copyright © 2002 Harvey Karten
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