“Social Intercourse” is a movie about a typical group of those hard-to-avoid twentysomethings who think their personal problems are fascinating. Made in eight days for fifteen thousand dollars, the film is more a testament to Director S. Lee Taylor’s skill at pulling together a professional-looking low budget project than anything that’s remotely entertaining.
Our protagonist, Todd (played by writer/director Taylor), is a frizzy-haired nerd who’s still pining for the gal (Rosylin Simmons) who dumped him a year ago. When she announces her engagement to some other dude, Todd goes into whiney overdrive. So, his equally uninteresting friends invite him to a party to try and cheer him up — and possibly find another poor fool to date him.
At that party there’s a pack of h***y, post-high school jock/a******s hanging around in the kitchen spouting obnoxious dialogue. Their main purpose seems to be to let us know that there are even bigger douchebags than Todd around, and we should consider ourselves lucky that they didn’t pick someone even more annoying to make a film about.
A lot of the actors are overwrought in their delivery of dialogue, as though yelling the lines will make them funnier. Again, we have to point the blame in the direction of filmmaker Taylor, who wouldn’t know subtlety if it was tied to a sledgehammer that was beating him over the head. So, it’s another fine example of a flick lacking good writing to make it work. Attitude is not enough.
The rest of the story? Todd mopes around the party some more. Some lesbians show up for a gratuitous, unexciting smooching scene. And, finally, Todd’s ex-girlfriend arrives with her new lay — and our boy makes a jackass of himself. Todd later apologizes to his former gal pal and things lurch to a close. So what?
A compelling story, funny jokes and talented actors were the missing ingredients in “Social Intercourse”, and without those, you haven’t got much.
