Movie Review: The Virginity Hit

A A A Comments (0) By Ernest Hardy Thursday, Sep 16 2010

The Virginity Hit

More About

THE VIRGINITY HIT Buried beneath Virginity Hit's determinedly crude gags about diarrhea, incest and frat-house debauchery is giggly but unfocused commentary on the role and prevalence of the Internet — specifically YouTube — in the sex lives and the rituals of humiliation (often intertwined) of 21st-century teens. Matt (a charmingly geeky Matt Bennett) is the last of his crew to lose his virginity; his plans to deflower and be deflowered by his girlfriend, Nicole (Winona Ryder look–alike Nicole Weaver), are derailed when she cheats on him. From his heartbreak spins a twisting tale of sulking revenge, a rowdy road trip, an encounter with a porn star and a host of elements and scenarios cribbed from every other teen boy-getting-laid flick ever made. Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland, who co-wrote and co-directed, are wildly uneven, veering from flashes of inspiration (an offer from a pretty stranger to assist Matt in his dilemma is not at all what it seems) to deadly dull lulls, from genuinely amusing bits to dead-on-arrival LOLZ. The duo also are lazily inconsistent with their use of grainy handheld footage to differentiate POVs. The film's Achilles' heel, though, is actor Zack Pearlman, whose character, Zack, wields the camera through which much of the tale is told. Pearlman's grating shtick as a poor man's Jonah Hill is old before the opening credits finish rolling. (Ernest Hardy) (Citywide)