Sex Appeal is a teen comedy that feels too much like an imitation of the hit television show Sex Education and the critically-acclaimed Booksmart. If it were not following on the heels of several exceptional stories about complicated young women discovering their sexuality, then Sex Appeal could have been worth a watch.
Avery Hansen-White (Mika Abdalla) is an overachieving high school teen who excels at things she is good at. This means she avoids things she knows she won’t be excellent in, such as normal teen stuff. Her goal in life is to be successful, so when her long-distance boyfriend suggests they have sex, Avery unexpectedly has a new goal. Luckily for her, a new STEM competition prompt becomes an avenue in which Avery can discover how to be good at sex. She decides to develop an app to help her become a master at it and to do so enlists the help of her oldest friend Larson (Jake Short) to be her test subject. Hilarity and awkwardness ensue.
Margaret Cho, Mika Abdalla, and Rebecca Henderson
Sex Appeal is a film that struggles on two fronts: It plays with a new set of archetypes and conventions that have been better articulated in other projects and there is too much of an emphasis on making a quirky and stylized teen sex comedy that character development for its lead gets left behind. The closest approximation to Sex Appeal would be the two projects previously mentioned. One can envision the pitch meeting for Sex Appeal that highlighted the connection to Booksmart and Sex Education because it is so glaringly obvious in the final product — from the enthusiastic “let’s talk about sex” mother(s) to the quirky set of high school students who defy conventions. Whether it is intentional or not, the problem with projects like Sex Appeal is that it ends up being devoid of personality and the protagonist being raised by a trio of lesbians doesn’t make up for that.
The film revolves around a teen girl learning about consent, foreplay, pleasure, partnership, and the many other facets of sex that make it an enjoyable experience. She conducts impromptu interviews with her fellow students which teaches her misconceptions and misunderstandings about sex that teens often hold onto. Avery then implements what she learns with Larson, but little does she know, her test subject has developed strong feelings for her. Along the way, Avery must learn that sex isn’t a purely physical experience, it is an emotional one too. All of this is rather important and relevant material in a teen sex comedy, especially in an age where more and more misguided adults want to dissuade young adults from learning anything about this perfectly natural experience. So, for what it sets out to do, Sex Appeal at least manages to get its message across. It is a well-intentioned and well-directed feature film.
Mika Abdalla in Sex Appeal
While Sex Appeal aims to be informative and fun, it falters when it comes to exploring these themes through its underdeveloped protagonist. Mika Abdalla is exceedingly charming in the role of Avery, but she cannot overcome her tragically underdeveloped protagonist. Avery, on paper, undergoes growth, but much of that growth is translated into voiceover narration. Abdalla, and by extension Jake Short, aren’t given nearly as much to do to play out their character arcs onscreen. Furthermore, Avery and Larson lack any interesting or defining qualities. All sense of personality is leeched off of supporting players who are nothing but quirks and snappy dialogue. Then there are the cute little vignettes that play when Avery and Larson have sexual encounters that attempt to make up for what these characters lack in personality. These moments quickly lose their appeal, and every time the screen gets flooded with a soft pink/purple neon haze it is eye-roll inducing.
In order for this film to work, it needed to emphasize the emotional growth of its lead. She remains stubbornly stagnant for far too long, and once she begins to turn, it comes too late. The most often spoken rule, “show, don’t tell,” should have applied here. Too often Avery is telling us what she is thinking and feeling over shots of her riding a scooter bike or wordlessly inputting code into her app. With so much of her character development defined by narration, the audience is left with a rather hollow lead. And without an evocative central character, the whole film falls apart. There is a need for more films and TV shows led by complicated and nuanced young women and girls. Sex Appeal has good intentions and good instincts, but a lack of nuance torpedoes the whole endeavor. Perhaps Hulu’s latest will find an audience willing to accept it with its flaws, or perhaps most people will feel inclined to watch something better.
Sex Appeal begins streaming on Hulu starting Friday, January 14. It is 90 minutes long and not rated.
