Hola all. Massawyrm here.
At first glance Sex Drive is your standard paint by numbers teen sex comedy, mashing up a number of classic formulas into one, cohesive super-cliché that serves as a vehicle for an endless stream of dick and scat jokes. And for the first hour that you watch it, it does nothing to change your mind about that fact. It’s a road movie. About a guy trying to lose his virginity. Populated with all the requisite characters of any teen comedy. The dateless dork. The sex fiend. The adorable best friend. The douchebag older brother. The obnoxious dynamic duo. They’re all present and accounted for, every last one of them. And the first two acts of this film are very paint by numbers, setting up all the jokes you expect and then moving onto the next set.
Oh, the movie’s funny. Very funny. But it is a little hard to get into at first. I mean, first and foremost, this is a ROAD movie. And that means there are rules. No matter what you are driving across country for, whether it be to intercept a sex tape (Road Trip) or to kick the shit out of Dr. Phil (Weiners) or to take Britney Spears to get a record deal (Crossroads) or driving across limbo to find your dead ex-girlfriend (Wristcutters: a Love Story) or simply seeking existential fulfillment from the likes of Timothy Leary and Arlo Guthrie while finding a place to dump a man’s ashes (Roadside Prophets) the rules are ALWAYS the same. First of all, we need to get everyone out of the car, so that means it has to break down. Then someone needs to do something crazy to get it back on the road. Once you’re back on the road it is best to spend the night someplace strange. There should probably be a carnival or roadside attraction to spend some time at if at all possible. And then you need to somehow run afoul of the law in a manner that allows a quick, friendly release. Then, and only then, can you get back on the road and resolve any and all of the issues that have come to light while doing all of the above. Which means the main characters need to have a fight.
And Sex Drive is no different. Not only does it play by the rules, you can actually set your watch to the execution of every trope they roll out. And just to delude you into thinking that this is as ordinary as it comes, they bring out the mother of all teen sex romantic comedy plot points – the hot girl next door best friend. They set this one up less than five minutes in and it’s impossible not to know where this is going – it’s just a matter of time. And frankly, despite how funny many of the jokes were, it all felt a little hollow. The main character Ian never moves beyond being the sex starved geek. His best friend Felicia is pretty much the standard alterna-chick carbon copy of Jennifer Love Hewitt in Trojan War. And as funny-as-a-rubber-crutch as he is, James Marsden is playing Bill Paxton’s Chet from Weird Science.
So why is it that I love the ever living shit out of this movie?
What sets Sex Drive apart, what differentiates it from the pack and makes it well worth the trip out to see, is the third act. Because virtually everything they do in the first two acts, almost every joke they make, almost every side trek they take, is really just a set up for the climax when almost every plot point comes screaming head on into one gigantic cluster fuck of awesome. The climax of this movie isn’t funny. Funny makes you laugh. This had me howling, doubled over in my chair in a frenzied fit of mirth, and when I finally came up for air, tears were streaming down my cheeks. Every joke at this point KILLS and then is immediately followed by another. And as the interpersonal relationships begin to get tied up, each one is earned. Each conclusion feels right, not because that’s the way the genre stipulates but because that is the ending each of these characters worked towards and achieved, despite their obstacles.
The worst thing a movie like this can do is paste on an ending. Unfortunately that is far too often the case with teen films. Here, the film is entirely about getting us to an ending. Where most road trip films use the side treks as points to develop the characters for the audience and places for good gags, Sex Drive uses it to set up one mother of a crazy, well deserved climax. Sure, those scenes still serve to get us out of the car and into insane situations. But it is the pulling of double duty that makes this worthy of putting on your radar.
The leads all do a great job with their roles and making the jokes work, but really, the guys who get the biggest laughs are the ones you really expect to: James Marsden and Seth Green. Marsden simply dominates any and every scene he is in, as is his current M.O. Finally having broken away from being a ‘solid, dependable’ supporting actor, he’s begun to simply steal the scenes from anyone he acts with. He’s like the guy who has finally come out of his shell to fuck every woman in a five mile radius, including his friend’s girls. No one is safe around this guy, and everyone is elevated by his presence. And I love that as talented as he is and as many hits as he has been in that he’s not demanding leading roles. Here he puts his all into playing the overcompensating asshole older brother who kicks our leads ass every chance he gets. I knew this guy in High School, only he didn’t drive ’69 GTO. It was a Camero. And Marsden nails absolutely every little tick I hated about this guy.
Green on the other hand has a delicate role to play. He’s plays a devout Amish character. And while there is a certain level how the fuck are they gonna know? to the notion of whether or not they go too far, he plays it hilarious while being incredibly respectful of the people and their beliefs. He’s a guy who loves his faith, but finds the one thing lacking in his life that the “English” life affords is sarcasm. And so he brandishes that classic Seth Green wit every chance he gets, this time getting a whole extra layer out of it. Even though he only appears in maybe 5 minutes of the film, he doesn’t so much leave his mark as he puts a tremendous dent in it.
And when all is said and done, you look back and find yourself in love with this comfortable little excuse for an endless stream of dick and scat jokes. This is that little comedy that could, that earns every laugh and every warm fuzzy feeling that it leaves you with. And while it certainly won’t go down with the John Hughes classics or something like Superbad, I would certainly place this next to the early Savage Steve Holland’s or something like Three O’ Clock High. One thing is for sure – this isn’t the flash in the pan the trailer makes it out to be. This really is a special little comedy and well worth the time of anyone who is a fan of the genre.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
Got something for the Wyrm? Mail it here.
