Huck Botko
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Filmography
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As his pals (Zack Pearlman, Jacob Davich and Justin Kline) shadow him with video cameras, documenting even TMI moments that would better have been unshared, The Virginity Hit becomes a YouTube riff on the American Pie genre - a shaky-cam, Cloverfield / Blair Witch Project take on teen hijinks.
This is pretty much a total rip-off of the webcam scene from the first “American Pie,” of which this movie is more or less an update with slicker technology.
A repellent little “comedy’’ from writer-directors Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland and executive producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, the movie’s being marketed as “American Pie’’ for the Facebook generation.
Having established itself as a viable format for horror, the first-person handheld camera style is used for comedy in The Virginity Hit -- specifically the American Pie -type sex comedy, in which young people obsess about losing their virginity but manage eventually to learn to respect the opposite sex.
Some of the material is amusing, although nothing quite reaches the laugh-aloud level attained by "groundbreaking" sex comedies like American Pie .
The Virginity Hit is a patchwork of American Pie and a hundred familiar losin'-it/road-trip/beer-bong comedies, and it's often just as synthetic as any of them.
The Last American Virgin (1982)
Directed by Boaz Davidson
influenced The Virginity Hit (2010)
Themes
Believing that there might be an underlying sweetness and truth to go along with the raunchiness, a 'la 1982's "The Last American Virgin," 1999's " American Pie " and 2008's " Sex Drive ," is nothing but a setup for disappointment.
It specifically evokes 2007â??s seminal Superbad and 2010â??s underseen The Virginity Hit, each of which more hilariously encapsulated the awkward pursuit of cherry-popping good times, with the latter even employing the same handheld conceit as this film.
The film, like the equally lousy "The Virginity Hit" before it, purports to have been assembled from actual documentary footage shot by some dude with a camcorder following Thomas, Costa and JB everywhere.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Directed by Daniel Myrick
influenced The Virginity Hit (2010)
Visuals Plot
The Virginity Hit takes the first-person, pseudo-documentary approach popularized by horror films such as The Blair Witch Project and applies it to the coming-of-age/teen comedy genre.
A combination of " American Pie ," " The Blair Witch Project " and crap, the film is made up of 87 minutes' worth of faux YouTube videos all shot by obsessive teenage voyeur Zack (Zack Pearlman) as he and fellow deflowered friends Jacob (Jacob Davich) and Justin (Justin Kline) attempt to get his gawky adopted brother Matt (Matt Bennett) laid for the first time.
For all their natural energy, Matt and Zack more or less replicate the Michael Cera/Jonah Hill dynamic of shy nerd and big mouthy guy from Superbad , albeit without the brilliant timing.
It's kind of a low-budget, grungy looking Superbad without the stupid cop stuff.
After a recent New York screening of the new mockumentary The Virginity Hit, cowriter/director Huck Botko (who with his partner, Andrew Gurland, also cowrote the August mockumentary The Last Exorcism; they have a type, apparently) told the audience that he had never seen Superbad.
The secret weapons here are actors Matt Bennett, playing the titular innocent, and Zack Pearlman, his loutish best friend (following in the footsteps of Superbad's winning dynamic).
It’s a daring, sweet performance that almost single-handedly elevates The Virginity Hit from a standard Superbad knock-off into a film that feels raw, painful, and real.
Superbad, minus the super.
The Virginity Hit is a sex comedy, not some mannered portrait of a misunderstood outsider, and Botko and Gurland are wannabe Larry Charles disciples, not Catherine Hardwicke circa Thirteen.
It would be a miscalculation to lump "Unfriended" in with the unsavory, irresponsible likes of 2010's " The Virginity Hit ," 2012's " Project X ," and 2015's " Project Almanac ;" this film is playing on a higher level, ringing true with the authenticity of its characters and their everyday reliance on technology to communicate.
Believing that there might be an underlying sweetness and truth to go along with the raunchiness, a 'la 1982's "The Last American Virgin," 1999's " American Pie " and 2008's " Sex Drive ," is nothing but a setup for disappointment.
So that brings us to The Virginity Hit , a film that combines the more crass sensibilities of films like Superbad with the reality TV docudrama craze (think: Paranormal Activity or Cloverfield ).
Their banter frequently demonstrates a level of sophistication and maturity that’s typically only found in reprehensible teen sex comedies like The Virginity Hit.
The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
Directed by Judd Apatow
influenced The Virginity Hit (2010)
Themes Plot
The only filmmaking team that really seems to find success in the genre is the Apatow gang, but even they've branched off from the genre, focusing less on films like Superbad and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and sinking deeper into more mature films.
It's like a dumbed-down version of the clever "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," without heart and told faux-documentary style.
Many good movies have been made on such a premise, from "American Pie" to "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," but "The Virginity Hit" isn't one of them.
Subsequent to that, he and Botko teamed for a couple of shorts, then produced the mockumentary Mail Order Wife.
Grownup filmmakers Andrew Gurland and Huck Botko have shown before -- with the very funny Mail Order Wife and the creepy recent The Last Exorcism -- that they know how to use the faux-documentary form to tell pointed stories about societal foibles.
Director-screenwriters Andrew Gurland and Huck Botko are no strangers to the mockumentary format; their credits include the cult film "Mail Order Wife" and screenplay for "The Last Exorcism," in theatrical release.