Teen Lust
Contemporary World Cinema
Blaine Thurier’s teen sex comedy Teen Lust is the last thing Canadian film needs right now. The premise has potential, though. Neil (Jesse Carere) just turned 18, is about to finish high school, and is a virgin. That’s fine by his parents (Jon Dore and Emmanuelle Vaugier) who need an 18 year old virgin to sacrifice to Satan. He easily escapes their poorly planned ceremony and spends the rest of the film trying to get laid to save his life.
It’s difficult to tell which of Thurier’s genre clichés are meant to be self reflexive and which are just genuinely overused. When the film begins, we’re immediately bombarded with well worn tropes such as the sarcastic best friend, the jealous, bullying boyfriend of the hot girl, and an mishap involving masturbating in front of a bunch of people. There’s a glimmer of hope when you think this might be a parody, but other than the cult scenes (that feel borrowed from Hot Fuzz) it’s completely void of wit, commentary, or originality.
By far the highlight of the film is a transformed Cary Elwes as the Satanist cult leader, particularly when he is playing off criminally underused comedian Dore. These two provide the only laughs, but unfortunately most of the film follows Neil and his obnoxious friend. They might go down in history as the most of annoying, obnoxious movie friends. (Noah Taylor)
Screens
Wednesday, September 10th, 7:45pm, Bloor Hot Docs Cinema
Friday, September 12th, 3:00pm, Scotiabank 3
Thanks to SPiN TORONTO for sponsoring our TIFF 2014 coverage.