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I Am A Sex Addict
R1 - America - Genius Products Review written by and copyright: Jim Stanton & Noor Razzak (2nd November 2006). |
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The Film
 I started in on good faith, I did I swear I did. I had read the synopsis which intrigued me; I appreciated the quirky comic timing, graphics and stream of consciousness stop/start narrative. In the past I had liked honest, rough around the edges documentaries about people, their lives and foibles. I do not like over an hour of self indulgent wankery. The descent of Caveh Zahedi is an insight to addiction of any kind and its telling is to its credit a starkly unadorned without preamble or any attempt to try and make its telling any kinder to the viewer. His slow but steady path from the timid questioning of his desire to experience illicit sex outside his failing marriage to the out of control "just one last time " mentality of his adultery is told straight up and blank faced to the camera. So I, ever the fan of deadpan banter and delivery I chortled my way through his first few forays. But so very soon things wain to the bleak side, big time. What began as one man's insight quickly becomes the most smarmy macho wank fest I have seen since "Waterworld" (1995). You're maybe wondering why something with a good original concept with the added bonus of truth has me turning from love to hate as quickly as Nicole Ritchie away from muffin. "Sounds good" you cry "what's the big deal" It's the man himself. Obviously Zahedi is a disciple to the honesty-is-the-best-policy school of thought which may sound like a great concept but he's the guy who thinks he's doing you a favour by pointing out exactly how big your ass has got since you last saw him. A filmmaker and director of experimental film from a young age he waxes lyrical about the "ego" and his place in life "So who am I in all this? An Other, certainly. But also a specific Other: "God." I think that gives you an idea of the man. While his narrative takes us though some dark times for anyone his vacant stare hardly seems to register a flicker on the regret-o-meter. Yes, obsession is a horrible thing that can grip a mind till all you think about is achieving that one desire but shouldn't you feel a wee bit bad about it? Should you not look back and know that this thing destroyed you mind and soul was not a good thing? Even to take any feminist spin on Zahedi out the picture his view and objectifying of women is still a thing to see. I kinda have to admire a man who bears such a strong resemblance to a tea spoon having the balls to take on the burden of treating every woman he claims to love like s**t. I only find myself wondering why you would bother taking hallucinogenic mushrooms for a scene where all you do is lie on the ground. Seems a bit of a waste when that money could have gone to a deserving hit man who I would gleefully pay to shoot Zahedi in the crotch. Maybe while he was tripping he envisioned he was a decent and good human being. I bet that comedown was a bitch. At one point he makes his current aficionado (ruined by emotional trauma and booze by this point) wait with him for over an hour in a brothel while waiting for a certain prostitute that took his fancy earlier. The story swings favourably toward Zahedi as formally strong women collapse under the weight of his empty passion of self-gratification and brutal honesty; after him who could look themselves in the mirror let alone ever want to think about sex again. He doesn't know but he doesn't seem too concerned either. Maybe the streams of women he damages on his way past are flattered by the hot actresses old Caveh hand picks to play them as he re-enacts his oily way through their most intimate moments together. Or maybe they are right now scheming a crafty plot of death by means of castration. Call me girls...I have some ideas.
Video
Presented in the film's original full screen ratio of 1.33:1 this transfer looks as good as the digital format allows considering it was shot on miniDV, although the image is sharp and colors are well rendered the overall image has some compression issues, hard lines are occasionally pixelated. Some archival footage is included in the film and as expected this footage is faded and occasionally damaged by dirt and wear but this is not in any way a direct fault with the transfer.
Audio
A single English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is included and considering this is a documentary style film which is largely dialogue based this is about all you really need for such a film and as a result the dialogue is clear and distortion free, some minor activity is included in the animated scenes, but otherwise this is a fairly straight-forward stereo track. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired and Spanish.
Extras
Genius Products have included three featurettes plus a collection of bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. A series of three featurettes are included under the title "Shooting I Am A Sex Addict", these are fly-on-the-wall behind the scenes video of the shooting of three key scenes from the film. You can view them individually or with a 'play all' function. They include: - "The Ecstasy Scene" which runs for 11 minutes 1 seconds. Here we see the crew setting up the shots as the director goes through the scene with the actress playing his girlfriend. Zahedi divulges too much information about his current sex life and then tries to convince the actress to do the scene topless and then naked, but she refuses. The most disturbing thing about this clip is seeing the expressions on Zahedi's face as he watches the footage the cameraman just shot. - "The Hotel Scene" which runs for 11 minutes 22 seconds, is much of the same thing as the previous clip except that actress Amanda Henderson is a little more willing to get naked for the scene as they work out shots and most importantly sexual positions for the scene. This clip also has it's share of disturbing moments as the camera chooses to focus his lens on Zahedi's penis on several occasions. - "The Mushroom Scene" which runs for 10 minutes 53 seconds, Yet again more of the same style of behind the scenes video is included here, this time Zahedi takes some magic mushrooms and goes for a trip. Carrying on the tradition of disturbing video is Zahedi taking the effects of those mushrooms and screaming and babbling for several minutes, he instantly went from sleazy to scary. Some people might find it interesting to explore these supplements, others will certainly be scared away by his giant googly-eyed sleaziness. If a show called "America's Most Disturbing Videos" existed, the three featurettes above would certainly win first, second and third place. Rounding out the extras are a series of bonus trailers for: - "Killshot" which runs for 2 minutes 1 second. - "Clerks II" which runs for 1 minute 32 seconds. - "Pulse" which runs for 2 minutes 30 seconds. - "Sorry, Haters" which runs for 1 minute 41 seconds.
Overall
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