I enjoyed this film. I especially liked Amber Benson as Donna, an aspiring screenwriter with serious esteem issues who makes no secret of her overpowering sexual appetite. She convinces her shy but successful roommate Christi Ann (Kristen Kerr) to pick up two gigolos downtown for some paid sex. The girls and guys pair up, have sex, then face the consequences in the morning and thereafter.
The set-up is silly and full of those little coincidences that are routine in these kinds of female-oriented relationship films. The two supposed gigolos are actually unemployed construction workers (female fantasy time) who need someone to pay their bar bill at the fancy hotel bar they chose to patronize (only in the movies), and the two wanton females (male fantasy time) are only too happy to oblige (ahem). Well, they have to meet somehow, right? If you can get past that silliness, things do pick up later.
Johann Urb (Joe) and Stevie Long (Stanny) are genial enough as the two buddies who luck out, but their characters are drawn simplistically. Urb plays Joe as a male model type (at one point he even gets a job offer as a model, one of the more believable moments in the film) in whose mouth butter wouldn't melt. Stanny is played as a crude lout who says thing while sober that you would have to be drunk to think are acceptable. Both guys are given dialog that sometimes rings true and sometimes doesn't, sometimes makes sense and sometimes doesn't.
There isn't any explicit sex shown, but some scenes are about as suggestive as you can get without crossing that line. Which isn't a bad thing, the sex scenes are essential to show the complex attractions involved. That's a pretty remarkable achievement, usually the sex in low budget films like this is gratuitous, but here it really isn't. Donna in particular has a lot of issues and gets closer to reality with her neuroses and sensitivities than the others, who are broad stereotypes. If as much care had been taken with the other characters, "Strictly Sexual" might have become a minor classic.
But, alas, along with Donna we have the shy, innocent girl who must learn about love from her sensitive, gentle and caring construction worker/male model Joe, and the other construction worker who takes the caveman routine way too far. Only in the final scene does Stanny get a chance to act like a human being, and unfortunately, that's too late.
Even with its flaws, I liked this one. An entertaining way to spend the evening, especially if you like Amber.
The set-up is silly and full of those little coincidences that are routine in these kinds of female-oriented relationship films. The two supposed gigolos are actually unemployed construction workers (female fantasy time) who need someone to pay their bar bill at the fancy hotel bar they chose to patronize (only in the movies), and the two wanton females (male fantasy time) are only too happy to oblige (ahem). Well, they have to meet somehow, right? If you can get past that silliness, things do pick up later.
Johann Urb (Joe) and Stevie Long (Stanny) are genial enough as the two buddies who luck out, but their characters are drawn simplistically. Urb plays Joe as a male model type (at one point he even gets a job offer as a model, one of the more believable moments in the film) in whose mouth butter wouldn't melt. Stanny is played as a crude lout who says thing while sober that you would have to be drunk to think are acceptable. Both guys are given dialog that sometimes rings true and sometimes doesn't, sometimes makes sense and sometimes doesn't.
There isn't any explicit sex shown, but some scenes are about as suggestive as you can get without crossing that line. Which isn't a bad thing, the sex scenes are essential to show the complex attractions involved. That's a pretty remarkable achievement, usually the sex in low budget films like this is gratuitous, but here it really isn't. Donna in particular has a lot of issues and gets closer to reality with her neuroses and sensitivities than the others, who are broad stereotypes. If as much care had been taken with the other characters, "Strictly Sexual" might have become a minor classic.
But, alas, along with Donna we have the shy, innocent girl who must learn about love from her sensitive, gentle and caring construction worker/male model Joe, and the other construction worker who takes the caveman routine way too far. Only in the final scene does Stanny get a chance to act like a human being, and unfortunately, that's too late.
Even with its flaws, I liked this one. An entertaining way to spend the evening, especially if you like Amber.