The Virginity Hit review

Great and noble is the history of films about horny teenage boys. From the moment Dan Monahan spied on Kim Cattrall in “Porky’s,” Hollywood has luxuriated in the epic journey young, nerdy heterosexual men take to finally tap that ass. “American Pie” is arguably the masterwork of the genre, making the phrase “One time, at band camp…” a joke for the ages, and ensuring Eugene Levy never has a serious career.

“The Virginity Hit” is the latest entry into the genre, and marketing itself as the “American Pie” for the Youtube generation. It follow the travails of Matt (Matt Bennett) the last boy in his group of friends to lose his virginity and who’s left by his girlfriend after his adoptive brother convinces him to tape himself attempting to have sex.

Ok, guys. I am really, really trying not to be called a sour, humorless feminazi. I am a feminist, and as such I see the real value in movies reflecting the teenage male psyche. They can be a goldmine of insight not just into the minds of men, but our own skewed cultural view of sexuality. Americans tend to think of sex the way teenage boys do- as something both to be feared and to be joked about, something dangerous but also brimming with mystery and possibility.

They can also be pretty damn funny.

But you have to have a heart and a soul to be able to navigate the shark-infested waters of teen sex romps, and unfortunately “Virginity Hit” has neither. It’s a mean-spirited little piece of work, using a pretension of “social commentary as an excuse to show a bunch of boys committing felonies by taping an underage couple having sex for the first time, and, in one scene, breaking into a teenage girl’s bedroom.

Because, you know, boys will be boys.

The cast is a bunch of dead-eyed guys who look pretty damn pleased with their own cleverness, and a rotating band of mindless girls who are little more than a series of holes to be conquered. The only likable person in the movie has to be porn star Sunny Leone, who gives a sweet, and very funny cameo as the porn star with a heart of gold. Leone is obviously the most intelligent, the most mature and the most sympathetic of this group of miscreants, a rare ray of sunshine (pun not intended) in a gloomy, depressing view of human sexuality in the 21st century.

I’ve been thinking a lot about voyeurism after seeing this movie. After all, most of the movie is about the fact that Matt’s life is being documented, posted and commented on. It’s a very different world from when Pee-Wee poked a hole in the wall at Porky’s, and its admirable that “Virginity Hit” wanted to address that. I just wish there’d been a little more joy in it. Directors Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland see nothing but humiliation, fear and objectification in losing one’s virginity. God knows that’s part of the experience. But there’s happiness too, and mystery, and even a little fun if you’re very lucky.

Ask Sunny Leone about it. She apparently was the only one who gets it.