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Every Thing You
Always Wanted to Know About Sex*
Woody Allen's Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex, his fourth feature film, is a disjointed, erratic provocateur varying greatly in both quality, relevance and durability. Seeing as the film's main objective and function is to draw attention to taboos and mock what Allen argues is society's contemporary sexual oppression, whatever relevance it retains today is mainly as a document of Allen's development as a filmmaker - plus a few genuine laughs and fragments of great writing. As a whole, the movie will have limited meaning or value for today's audiences. The fetishes discussed, and ostensible controversy created by this, seems forced and stilted today (this goes particularly for the segments "What is Sodomy?" and "Why Do Some Women Have Trouble Reaching an Orgasm?"), but when Allen's writing occasionally does reveal bits of classic comedy and/or satire, the effect is intrinsic and timeless. The opening segment is particularly funny, with Allen perfectly cast as a sexually frustrated court jester, and the final vignette, illustrating how the male body works, from a sci-fi/military perspective, is a real treat.
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