John Lamond's follow up to Australia After Dark is another documentary about the underbelly of Australian life, with more emphasis on sex. This makes it even more exploitative than that first film, although it's less obviously Australian - the things they talk about apply to pretty much every country, really (indeed, apparently the hard core sex footage was shot in Sweden).
But you know, while it's easy to mock these sort of films, and it's no masterpiece, its heart is in the right place. Yes there are plenty of bums and boobs and dicks and vaginas, but the messages it puts forward are ones that many sex therapists espouse today: don't be judgemental about sex, nothing beats a supportive and caring sexual relationship, communication is importance, homosexuals should have the same rights as others, size doesn't matter so much as caring, experimentation can be fun.
It does have that exploitative side (for instance, in the segments of homosexuality it shows gay men being campy and bitchy, and the lesbians having sex) but at least it is supportive and encouraging of people having sex, showing it to be a good, positive, enjoyable thing - which even now remains rare for Australian cinema.
As a piece of cinema, it's a more assured work than Australia After Dark showing Lamond's increasing confidence. I enjoyed the opening and closing animation, John Michael Howson camps it up in a cameo, and there is some gloriously daggy dancing during the open credits. There is also some surprisingly hard core footage (as in erect penises) which is presumably why this ran into censorship trouble.
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