Kiss Me Again

William Tyler Smith filmed most of his second film Kiss Me Again in Williamsburgh, Brooklyn; the same place where I make my residence. It's a small section of Brooklyn that houses hipsters, young post-college parents, and about 15 sushi restaurants, only three of which are necessary. Kiss Me Again doesn't so much as brush up against the endemic neighborhood, nor does it really allow for much more from its main characters.

Julian (Jeremy London) and Chalice (Katheryn Winnick) live the bohemian dream. They work at a college and a Planned Parenthood center (respectively), live with a bisexual girl with the telling name of Malika (Elisa Donovan), and they have nice normal sex in their nice normal apartment. As always, Julian strays when Elena (Mirelly Taylor), a student, gives him a flirt with a Spanish accent. After much bickering, the couple decides to take Elena to bed. Not long after, Chalice and Elena are meeting by themselves and Julian is being left to an academic probation board with his friend Michael (Darrell Hammond).

Congratulations are in order for Smith: He has officially made sex as boring as a lecture on paint-drying techniques. Blame a terribly trite and prosaic script that never delves into the psychology of these sexually confused twentysomethings. The love and lust between Elena and Chalice doesn't correlate at all with the disintegration of Julian and Chalice. In fact, the film goes out of its way to save all revelations for the end, which comes on like a soap opera parade.

Far be it for anyone to suggest that a film that seems to be hinged on sexual ideology have a sex scene with any real heat. Embarrassing slow motion and sexual acts performed with both sports bra and boy shorts still on make for an awfully dull amount of sex. A scene where Elena and Chalice share a bath plays with an annoying amount of staginess.

Back to the script, the film isn't all that foul-mouthed. Where one would imagine a sexual film about seduction would be filled with dirty talk and innuendo, the filthiest line has something to do with fornicating ones brains out. Without the sex, Kiss Me Again becomes just another tale of young matrimonial boredom and sexual ambivalence. It's been done before in much more funny and honest ways (Kissing Jessica Stein?) and to be honest, the neighborhood has better stories.

Reviewed as part of the 2006 Tribeca Film Festial.