18-Year-Old Virgin

A girl (Olivia May) repeatedly tries and fails to lose her virginity at a house party.

This is bargain bucket stuff made on a total shoestring, straight to DVD. However what draws me to it is that it’s directed by a woman and written by a woman, and the central premise of the plot seems to be the reverse of what Hollywood normally seeks out.

Turns out though that the American Pie style frat party comedy is more difficult to pull off than it looks. There are jokes here, some of them funny on paper, but very few of them land in the actual film. In fact everything seems to be working against making people laugh: the edit, the acting and the terrible sound kills every joke dead in its tracks. Olivia May is quite good as the lead actress, but the comedy rests on the shoulders of everyone else.

It’s a shame because some of the set ups and ideas have potential, and there’s a story here that could have been quite subversive. Instead this is just a bit shit.