Threesome

Threesome
April 8, 1994
TriStar
Comedy, Drama, Romance
DVD
B+

This movie's racy title may be misleading.  Yes, it's about sex, including sex within and among three close but very different college roommates (guys named Eddy and Stuart, a girl named Alex), but it's also about love and friendship, and how those get mixed up with sex and with each other.  Appropriately enough, I first saw it the Fall after its initial release, on cable, in a dorm room.  In fact, I (by then a divorced 26-year-old) and two of the friends I watched it with went on to experience a more innocent version of the entanglements in the film.  So I can swear to you that the view of hijinks and pizza and sexual confusion is incredibly real.  (The "It's three in the morning!" "Shut up!" exchange is what would've occurred if anyone in our dormitory actually cared about us playing pranks on each other in the middle of the night.)  That the movie is set to a late '80s/ early '90s soundtrack (I lit up when Jellyfish's "My Best Friend" first played, and I still smile now), only further captures that time.

Even if you've never lived in a dorm, I think you'll be entertained.  The dialogue is witty in a college way.  That is, sometimes crude and sometimes pseudo-intellectual, but almost always funny.  There is also true poignancy in Eddy's dilemma.  (Josh Charles is perfect.)  He is a virgin but mostly identifies as gay, and yet he loves both his roommates.  (The word "bisexual" is never uttered by the way, which is a sign of the times.)  The romance is odd because I honestly don't like either Stuart or Alex (Stephen Baldwin and Lara Flynn Boyle) most of the time, and I don't desperately want any pair or triad of them to form.  But each time I watch the movie, I like seeing how it plays out.  I have watched the movie with a roomful of bisexuals by the way, and everyone fell silent during the ultimate sex/ love scene.  (It's not very graphic, but it is very erotic, tactile.)

Considering the small cast and budget, it's a very impressive movie, even today.  The lack of a strong plot (especially the ending) and some confusion about when Alex might've gotten pregnant (we know she usually uses condoms with Stuart, but the lack of graphic detail makes it unclear if they were forgotten during the three-sided sex), as well as the aforementioned not exactly sympathetic characters (even Eddy is insensitive to one poor girl Stuart brings "home"), weaken the film for me.  Still, there are things I like noticing, like how Alex does variations on '50s "costumes" in her everyday wardrobe, including a housewife when Stuart's date comes over for dinner.  My recommendation, watch the movie, unless the basic premise offends you.

Ironically, considering the name SNAFU (which by the way is also realistic, as I had to provide my college with proof that I was female and not subject to the draft), Dick is played by an Alex, Alexis Arquette, who is now a trans woman.  While still identifying as male, Arquette appeared as George in The Wedding Singer.  Writer/director Fleming (whose DVD commentary is well worth listening to) would appear as a doctor in Easy A, which has its own unique take on adolescent sexuality.

This is by the way, the 200th comedy on my blog, although like many of them, it's not simply a comedy.