Sex comedies have been popping up – and out – in cinemas since the seventies when the Confessions of…series brought boobs, bums and farcical laughs to the screens for a good few years, to be superseded by the likes of Porkies & Weird Science, then the American Pie series in the 90s. In recent years these comedies have become more a rowdy, crude comedy-void with the likes of Knocked Up, Superbad and I Want Candy, where unless you laugh at vulgar swearing and direct sex then there hasn’t been much to smile about.
In December 2010, Mother’s Little Helper will be released, a sex comedy that is quite old fashioned in both its production, style, use of a current trend and the fact it stars the long, and unfairly, forgotten James Belushi.
The plot, in its simplest terms, is a film about a group of college kids who become male escorts to a growing number of older women, or cougars.
Sam is a kid who has been kicked out of every boarding school he has ever been in for either skipping class, having sex with the teachers…you get the idea. Arriving at his new school, and after a tour by the headmaster (Belushi), Sam falls in with a group of kids similar to himself in terms of how big a loser he is and how much he just wants to jump into bed with someone a'” except as is the rule in such movies, none of them get a second look; well apart from one girl who seems to take a liking to Sam.
As Sam begins to get a grip of the school life, he finds out that his mother cannot pay the fees for him to stay there, but also somehow ends up sharing a spliff with the head and hearing about his exploits with ZZ Top.
In a bar later that night, Sam meets Alison, an older woman with a cheating husband. Soon she has taken him to her hotel for a little extra curricular work which leaves him with a cheque in his hand. Talking to his friends the next day they come up with the idea for creating an escort agency to deal with the need of other older women looking for fun.
On top of the usual expected complications, crossed wires and resolving final act, Mother’s Little Helper is a step away from the crude, crass so called “masterpieces” of comedy that made stars of Seth Grogan among others. The comedy is more subtle, the crudity of the sex is toned down and for me, at least, it works a damn sight better. You won’t laugh out loud often but you will leave with a smile on your face. And how many feature films have classic Bob Dylan playing over the end credits?
Tapping into the current Cougar phenomenon that is riding high in America, Mother’s Little Helper is a refreshing sex comedy that doesn’t rely on excessive in-your-face over the top nudity but instead delivers a good old fashioned situation comedy for the big screen.
