Wow! A teen coming-of-age film not part of the Frat Pack or Apatow collection! Not that we’re complaining about their output, as their films have re-reinvented the teen genre well, but it’s good to know there are other filmmakers out there putting their spin on things. The tagline “He’s leaving virgin territory” is almost misleading – Sex Drive is marketed as a teen comedy but has more to offer than straight out crudeness. It has intriguing characters, a farfetched yet feasible plot (albeit it very slightly) and the king of sarcasm, Seth Green.
Let us say from the outset that most of this has been seen before. It can’t be reviewed on the basis of plot because most of it is nothing new. Sex Drive contains all of the important elements of a ‘crudy’ within it at some point: the impending road trip, complete with borrowed car and token friends, problems that arise in getting to the destination (the petrol running out is most common and used entertainingly here) and the destination itself not providing the main character what he was initially searching for. Sex Drive, as do most teen crudies nowadays, relies on the handling of the plot conventions and the characters. Having said that, it surrounds Ian (Josh Zuckerman) – an 18 year old senior yet to lose his virginity, but when he’s offered the chance of his lifetime to go to a girl he’s been chatting up online, he hesitates. Why? Because in between Chicago and Knoxville stands 500 miles. After taking the plunge with help from friends Lance (Clark Duke) and Felicia (Amanda Crew), they embark on the road trip to end all road trips with interesting inclusions of a gun, a donut costume and lack of shoes.
Not many crudies are based on books, but Sex Drive defies that. Author Andy Behrens had no involvement of developing his characters from ‘All The Way’, with duties left to director Sean Anders and colleague John Morris. Anders, in only his second film as a director after 2005’s Never Been Thawed, handles the film fairly well. It’s hard to say what parts have been added in not having read the book, but the usual conventions are put to us with hilarity and an idea that you just have to let go sometimes. Scenes we see of an Amish community would probably almost never occur in real life – but in hindsight, they probably do want to feel liberated every so often. Working with American Pie production company Summit Entertainment, who perhaps are starting to create a niche in teen film production, Anders doesn’t try anything too visually stunning, often setting a scene with an establishing shot of the car down a highway. In its defence, it’s a film not likely to be seeking cinematography recognition.
The characters are how Sex Drive wins you over, even with the three leads virtual unknowns. Zuckerman is great as Ian, looking the part of an unsure, awkward teen and Crew as Felicia brings all the angst and confusion a teenage girl can, but the find here is Clark Duke as Ian’s best friend Lance. With some of the wittiest lines of the film he carries himself with an air of Seth Rogen as the lovable ladies man. The downright funniest (and yes, crudest) lines go to duo Randy (Mark L. Young) and Andy (Charlie McDermott), the comic losers who’ll say anything to get laid, while James Marsden improves his comic turns in Enchanted and Hairspray as Ian’s older brother Rex (who has a few issues of his own) and Seth Green as an Amish man – you can’t really go wrong.
Sex Drive has a sense about it of being a cut above the usual slew of gross-out comedies. That’s not to say it isn’t crude – it gives us a serving of balls, condoms and one Miss Tasty, but it gives us a laugh that almost teaches us a lesson like Ian – that having fun in life is the most important thing of all. Perhaps being based on a book helps a film to be successfully adapted because it’s all there… but it definitely has something to offer even for those not inclined to see many movies, and that’s a pretty big laugh.
Sex Drive is in Australian cinemas Thursday November 13.
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