The evolution of genres in online video is funny. While categories like “attractive girl solving mystery with help of vlog audience” or “funny animals set to music” have slowly become the “hospital drama” or “20-something sitcom” of the medium, sometimes a new genre will spring forth fully formed, like Athena from the head of Zeus. And this month, that new genre seems to be “porn that’s not technically porn.”
Unlike PG Porn or the Diesel-produced video of SFW Porn, though, the Tony Kaye-directed This Is Not Sex seeks to be more than just the execution of a tired gimmick. Sure, the setup is similar to PG Porn — Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen are posed in seemingly erotic scenarios that are then revealed to be non-sexual in nature. But the individual scenarios are edited together at a brisk clip, never once overplaying the joke, while tied together with brief interviews with Banks and Rogen and quotes from great minds about sex.
Most of the poses chosen invoke images of violence, because art house directors experimenting with the superficially pornographic cannot resist playing with the sex and death conundrum. Tony Kaye’s heavily arty direction and cinematography — which utilizes both slow-motion AND still-frame black and white photographs — occasionally mean that the piece has the feel of an ultra-pretentious student film, but Banks’ and Rogen’s charm ground the scenario with a veneer of reality. The result is something a little bit funny, a little bit arty — but definitely not sex.
This Is Not Sex was produced as a featured video for Mean Magazine, a bimonthly pop culture periodical that (unsurprisingly) featured Rogan and Banks on its September cover. The entire stunt ties into promoting Kevin Smith’s upcoming comedy Zach and Miri Make a Porno — which not only contains real porn stars, but actual sex, according to the MPAA rating. It also seems to be poised to join the new school of romantic comedies targeted to stoner dudes on dates (Knocked Up, Superbad) — not exactly an audience one expects to have a large crossover with aficionados of the director behind neo-Nazi drama American History X.
But the combination of Kevin Smith’s cast and Tony Kaye’s style ultimately leads to a strangely contemplative three minutes. Perhaps the result isn’t the the most natural promotion for the film, but given the choice between watching Seth Rogan riff on his new devotion to masturbation comedy and watching yet another movie trailer…well, there’s not much of a choice there. And maybe that’s what makes This Is Not Sex art: It’s not essential, but I’m better for having watched it.
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