Zack and Miri Make a Porno caused quite a ruckus with the conservative right when it hit theaters last fall, so our ears instantly perked up.
Hey, any film that gets the goat of an anti-sexual zealot is A-OK in my book.
The film, out on DVD now, starts out easily enough. Zach (Seth Rogan) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) are best friends living as roommates, working minimum-wage jobs and are dead broke. After an embarrassing video of them goes viral, Zach thinks he’s hit on a way to solve their money problems—make a porn video and send it to their high school class mailing list.
After pulling together a rag-tag team of actors, a producer and a cameraman, Zach and Miri, between shots of anal sex, scat, strap ons and other unmentionables, find themselves confusingly falling in love leading up to their “boring” sex scene (after which they both deny that it was more than just sex).
Director Kevin Smith has put together a smart, funny film that has very little to do with porn. It’s a romantic comedy with porn content. But more importantly, Smith makes a distinction between porn sex and real sex by making light of the more ridiculous porn acts and the awkwardness between Zach and Miri before they get down to business.
While it is not exactly a feminist or lesbian movie, I can definitely get behind its the sex-positive message. Not all porn has to be exploitative, shameful or degrading to women, and while it probably isn’t the most ideal industry to break into, if you’re not harming anyone, what’s the fuss?
It was a surprisingly funny movie (though definitely not one for the kids) that takes a crack at the romantic comedy genre. Fans of The 40-Year-Old Virgin will definitely take a shining to this flick.