The Sex Monster

In all blurbs I read about The Sex Monster, it touts the film as being a commentary/parody/satire/lambasting of sexuality and modern relationships. This is a comedy that’s trying to say something about… something. It really would have helped the film if I was more clear about what they were actually commenting on. My best guess about what The Sex Monster is trying to “say” is that women can’t have a normal relationship to sexuality. I hope I’m wrong on that but that’s very much what the film reads as.

The film focuses on married couple Laura and Marty. While their marriage and sex life is fine, Marty wants to experiment more. Specifically, he is laser focused on the idea of having a threesome where Laura would experiment with another woman. Eventually, Laura gives and and the couple has a threesome with Laura’s colleague Didi. But whoops! Turns out Laura ended up liking it even more than Marty which is bad! It’s only fine when men think it’s hot for two women to have sex. After this first instance, Laura goes from staunch heterosexual to queer seductress. She becomes the titular “sex monster” and begins seducing all the women in her and Marty’s life much to Marty’s dismay.

The film unavoidably fetishizes lesbianism. That’s basically the premise of the movie. Remember kids, women sleeping with women is fine as a male fantasy but a problem if it’s a female reality. Admittedly, there are some moments that might be considered forward-thinking. Early in the film, Laura and Marty discuss whether Didi is gay. Marty suggests that maybe she’s bisexual says, “we like bisexual”. So hey, thanks for not only using the word bisexual but in a positive way, I guess? At the end of the film, Didi also has a solid moment where she goes after Marty and men as a whole for how they treat lesbians. She correctly gets after him for thinking lesbians are fetish objects who actually like cock and are just waiting around for a man to show up. Still, these moments are very much watered down by all the overt lesbian fetishization.

The problem with The Sex Monster is it has some self awareness but I’m not sure how much. Writer/director Mike Binder clearly shows some awareness of the irony of him writing a film about female sexuality. And like the lesbian fetishization, there are moments in the film which belay knowledge about sexist attitudes, gendered double standards and queer marginalization. But they’re all just moments in this broader story which feels so stupid.When these moments happen I wonder if maybe the joke in this movie isn’t the scenario but the people who think this is how it would happen if a woman enjoyed herself sexually. But this movie isn’t successful enough for me to fully believe this is intentional and this is all a satire disguised as a much stupider movie.

Either way, it kind of ends up the same, though. The Sex Monster is a comedy and it’s not that funny. Admittedly, part of the problem is that it’s dated. Making a “hip” comedy or one with commentary on current society is a guarantee it will not age well. Maybe there would have been more laughs if I saw the film in 1999, though I doubt it. The basic outline for the film is definitely comedic but Binder never really fills in the dialogue with actual jokes. For all the comedic potential in its premise and characters, the characters don’t end up spouting that many funny lines.

As a final complaint, The Sex Monster has a pretty bad view of consent. “No means no” is not a phrase this movie has heard. Marty’s initial desire for Laura to sleep with a woman is met with multiple scenes of her being against the idea. He basically wears her down into saying yes. And even then, the initial threesome with Didi is a lot of Laura being clearly uncomfortable and needing to consume a great deal of alcohol to even kiss Didi. I don’t love that. Once Laura has become the quote unquote “sex monster” she also stops respecting boundaries. There’s a scene where she seduces Marty’s secretary, Diva which features multiple, increasingly aggressive come-ons from Laura. Diva rejects these increasingly physical come-ons multiple times before she finally relents and they make out passionately.

There are two ways I could summarize The Sex Monster. The first would be to damn it with faint praise. Binder is a competent enough writer/director that this film is recognizable as a comedy even if the jokes don’t land too hard. It’s a mediocre and forgettable product of the time that’s not the most offensive thing but not worth remembering either. The other way I can summarize the movie is a basic pro/con comparison. Binder is great at delivering lines with comedic flair in the film, too bad the dialogue is lame. Mariel Hemmingway is a total lesbian fantasy who I totally understand why women would want to sleep with. But the whole packaging is demeaning towards queer women.

Either way, it ends with the same result. The Sex Monster is a perfect 5/10. It’s too competent to be bad but not funny enough and too dated for a higher rating. I wouldn’t suggest watching this movie. It’s dated and average. Much as I do enjoy seeing a movie where a shit husband gets cucked by a lesbian, there are better options. Even French Twist which I also found middling was better. At least that movie fully committed to its ending where now it’s the husbands turn to experiment with bisexuality.

Overall rating: 5.0/10

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