Every film genre has to undergo changes as time moves on. It is only natural that film reflects the society of its audience. One particular type of film is forced to change a bit more frequently than the rest, the sex farce also more politely referred to as the bedroom farce. The height of this genre’s popularity was in the sixties. This was a decade of free love, peace and understanding. This carried over to mainstream films with many movies featuring Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Typically they were silly and by today’s standards extremely tame in how sex was hinted at but not really shown. The fundamental characteristic of this type of film is a befuddled man trapped in a series of relationships. Men in these films tend to be rather simply drawn and motivated only by the desire to get women into bed, or at least any semi-horizontal position. These are light comedies that are popular with audiences for several reasons. With men they are pure fantasies of a life they can never have. Since the men in the films usually ether get their just desserts or see the light of the joys of monogamy women also usually enjoy the flicks. Of course now the standards for what is permissible in a film are much more relaxed than forty years ago. They can be more explicit than before with much more skin shown than previously permitted. Unfortunately this has the ancillary affect of shifting the focus from witty, urbane dialogue to mindless simulation of sexual acts. This is a parallel to what has happened to the horror genre. As we become a more visually oriented society films have moved away from letting the mind of the audience fill in the gaps towards showing everything in detail. Imagination in the minds of the viewers has been largely replaced with flicks geared towards the eyes alone. One of the latest entries to the bedroom farce is ‘Sex and Death 101’. It has a good deal of faults but has an interesting premise and a great cast that buoys it as much ass humanly possible. True to the format it is light and fluffy entertainment that is good for a night with some friends.

The movie was written and directed by Daniel Waters. He has experience in both fields albeit some movies would say that this may not be a plus here. As a screenwriter he has penned flicks like ‘Demolition Man’ and ‘Heathers’, both cult classics. The downside is he gave the world ‘Hudson Hawk’, one of Bruce Willis’ less stellar accomplishments; ‘The Adventures of Ford Fairlane’ which featured Andrew ‘Dice’ Clay and ‘Batman Returns’ which began the downward spiral of the nineties Batman franchise. The premise here is simple and actually very interesting as story lines for this sort of flick goes. The question it poses is ‘what if you received an email listing not only every woman you ever had sex with but every one that you will sleep with for the rest of your life. Most wives and girlfriends would be quick to state that the future part of the list should have only one name and it had better be theirs. Of course, monogamy is not a personality trait that is contusive to this type of flick. While the execution of the story is awkward at best there are some positive factors that need to be mentioned. First of all this film is not the others in the modern versions of this genre. That is to say it is not a teen oriented sex-fest that has its plot just as an excuse for scatological jokes and sexual escapades. Admittedly this is far from intelligent comedy but it doesn’t pander to the kids sneaking into the multiplex to watch an R rated flick. Waters knows he is writing a silly movie, he has enough experience in this arena, and he embraces it. You have to give the man credit for knowing that he is creating a popcorn flick. The movie has no pretensions of greatness; it just wants to be entertaining.

As a director Waters as a bit less experience with only one previous film on his resume; ‘Happy Campers’, which he also wrote. This one was more in the line of the teen sex romp and remains a late night cable guilty pleasure for some. In this film he moves the story along nicely. There is the first act where he sets up the self centered personality of the protagonist. Then he moves swiftly into the setup with the appearance of the mysterious email and the realization that this is a list of sure things, something a lot of men would want to get their hands on. He also gears the film more towards being a dark comedy. This does open up the possibilities but in the third act the farce goes too far off track and falls apart. It feels that he was trying to recapture what he managed to do years ago with ‘Heathers’, which also stared Winona Ryder.

Roderick Blank (Simon Baker) is a typical man. He has had his share of sexual encounters but know feels he is ready to finally settle down with his fiancée Fiona Wormwood (Julie Bowen). She is domineering and controlling but has a certain type of charm for Roderick. One day his assistant Trixie (Mindy Cohn) finds an email that contains a list of 101 women’s names. In short order he recognizes the first 29 names on the mysterious list as all the women he has ever slept with. Fiona comes in at 29 but he starts to wonder about the other 72 names. He gets an idea about the true nature of the list when he goes to his bachelor’s party. There a stripper calling herself Precious (Jessica Kiper) gives him a lap dance. One thing leads to another and he has sex with her. When he finds out her real name is Carlotta Valdes and that the name is number thirty on the list he realizes that he has 71 more women to have sex with. The list was sent by a computer in another dimension. It is supervised by three men; Alpha (Robert Wisdom) and his assistants Beta (Tanc Sade) and Fred (Patton Oswalt). It turns out that the computer glitches and started to send out emails; most with the date of a person’s death but Roderick got ‘The List’. Roderick initially sees the list as a guide to his future conquests. Soon things go far awry as is required by the genre. Also roaming about town is a woman (Winona Ryder). She is a Goth type who has the perchance for near fatal sexual encounters with men. She becomes somewhat of a media darling and feminist poster girl since she is after men that she feels have committed crimes against women. She is given the name ‘Death Nell’ in the media and certainly tries to live up to it.

The DVD release is from Anchor Bay/Starz and is well mastered. It is available in both regular DVD and Blu-ray. Both have a commentary track with Waters and a little featurette called ‘101 Perversions’. This is not a great film but it does have its moments.