Sex Appeal Review: An Endearing and Unpredictable Coming of Age Film

Sex Appeal offers an endearingly awkward and hilarious take on finding yourself, falling in love, and navigating the tough time that is your first time. It’s a cute coming-of-age film, and it’s one that is well worth your time. 

The film follows Avery as she sets out to learn everything she can about having sex after her long-distance boyfriend tells her that he’s ready to take things to the next level. When classmates and popular culture fail her, Avery decides to conduct her own experiments with her best friend, Larson.

One refreshing aspect of Sex Appeal is that the lead character, Avery, isn’t naive or shy about sex. There aren’t any awkward scenes where she is shocked by how open people are about sexual intercourse and the body.

Instead, she’s the one ambushing her fellow classmates with direct sexual questions. Her scientific approach makes things awkward at times, but that’s where the bulk of the humor comes from.

Surprisingly, Avery’s directness doesn’t lead to any cringe-worthy moments, and that’s a major accomplishment. I absolutely loathe those moments, and there are usually multiple scenes in coming of age teen-movies that give off so much second-hand embarrassment to the point where I have to fast forward because I cannot take it anymore.

The one scene that gives off second hand-embarrassment is the one that is supposed to: Avery failing her Stemcon presentation. You’d expect that maybe her sex experiments with Larson or scenes with her mom might make you inch for the fast forward button, but they never do, and that’s a success.

One of the things that helps Sex Appeal avoid getting too cringy (or too pornographic) are the strange scenes that occur during the sex experiments — the synchronized swimming scenes or the cave exploration scene, for instance.

The choice to have those scenes is an unexpected one, but they work. Those moments add a bit of quirkiness and humor that fits in perfectly with the tone of the film.

One of the most interesting aspects of Sex Appeal is Avery.

While the film portrays her as a perfectionist who just hasn’t prioritized social milestones and is attracted to people’s intellect over physical attributes, the ending of the film suggests there’s a bit more to it than that.

Avery isn’t necessarily blind to how Larson or anyone else feels about her. It’s more like she just isn’t hardwired to express love or care for another person in the way that most people do.

Avery: I may not show it in the same way, but I love you.

Sex Appeal chooses to never fully explore Avery’s difference in terms of labeling her, and in doing so, she never comes across as odd or other, which works to the film’s benefit. She’s merely presented as a young woman trying to navigate falling in love and having sex, which is extremely relatable, even if her methods may deviate from yours.

Going into Sex Appeal, most of us probably saw how the film would play out — Avery and Larson would end up falling for each other during their experiments and end up together. But, the film throws us a nice twist, and actually, the predictable ending wouldn’t have worked anyway.

There’s nothing about Avery and Larson’s situation that can be fixed with a dash of Hollywood magic. Avery is who she is, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but Larson wants a bit more than she can give him.

So, the film smartly opts to have Avery go through all the tried and true ways to win someone over and fail.

Instead of getting the guy, Avery helps him get the girl and continues to work a bit more on herself.

There’s a part of me that hopes that in ten years or so when Avery has had a chance to learn more about herself and how she operates in terms of being a couple, that she and Larson might find their way back to each other.

At the very least, I hope that they can salvage their friendship.

What did you think of Sex Appeal? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Sex Appeal is now streaming on Hulu.

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