Some film festivals take themselves too seriously. Not so South by Southwest, Austin's multi-disciplinary mega-event where enthusiastic crowds embrace comedies, the edgier the better. This year, a synopsis stood out as particularly promising: "A 30-year-old Native American virgin gets a job as a high school sex-ed teacher." Unfortunately, "Doin' It" doesn't quite pull it off (it's basically Haley Joel Osment's 2014 comedy "Sex Ed," with a cultural twist). The concept is funny, but the execution feels forced, in part because the substitute in question (played by Lilly Singh) is supposedly on an abstinence program. In theory, her profound celibacy should make her perfect for the position.
The film aims to combat shame surrounding all aspects of human sexuality, which seems an admirable goal, but inevitably controversial. But "Doin' It" goes overboard from the start, beginning with an embarrassment no teenager can forget: a teenage version of Singh's character, Maya (played by Celine Joseph), waits nervously in the wings at the school dance show when her dance partner chooses this one (right at that moment) to compare their private parts. They pull down their pants and then the curtain, exposing them both to the entire school.
Director: Sara Zandieh
Writers: Neel PatelLilly Singh, Sara Zandieh
Stars: Stephanie Beatriz, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Samantha Helt
There, in the audience, looking horrified, sit her conservative mother (Sonia Dhillon Tully) and Nani (Usha Uppal). But that's not all, and while it's inappropriate (rather than prudish) to describe her humiliation in detail, suffice it to say that the incident is so disgusting that the camera lens needs cleaning. Intended to be hilarious, the indignity is mostly just plain gross, closer to a sex crime than a joke. The incident turns the boy (later played by Utkarsh Ambudkar) into a legend, while young Maya is sent to India, where no one bothers to give her the lecture about the birds and the bees.
Some 15 years later, Maya returns to the United States full of ambition, if not necessarily life experience. The now tech-savvy entrepreneur has an idea for an app aimed at teens, and to perfect it, she decides to work as a substitute teacher at Proudamore High School—you know, the way most people with products aimed at teens get to know their target audience. Seeking to meet her diversity quota, the principal (Ana Gasteyer) hires Maya immediately, assigning her the task of teaching sex education. They would have done better to hire Barbara (Stephanie Beatriz), a lusty divorcée who works at the cafeteria, and arguably the film's funniest cast member (though Sabrina Jalees, who plays the lesbian best friend Jess, also provides laughs).
Maya may be a virgin, but she's hardly the least qualified person for the job (at least she doesn't seduce her students or try to scare them with details about STDs). Surprisingly, rather than the joke being that Maya ends up repeating her naive ideas to a class more experienced than her on the subject, "Doin' It" takes the comedy in a less intuitive direction. Maya decides to be the "coolest" sex-ed teacher ever, willing to lose her virginity and give practical lessons to these hormonally disoriented kids. The class includes all the expected stereotypes: the talkative jock (Christian Martyn), the abstinence advocate (Jessica Clement), the cool girl with an identity conflict (Ashley Singh).
After the suggested lessons fail, Maya embellishes them with original and unorthodox ideas. She introduces the "gender elephant" model (introducing gender socialization concepts that wouldn't be accepted in Florida). She shows explicit videos about the female orgasm. She assigns "self-love" homework to the students. And she takes time after class to advise Abbey Ho (Sydney Topliffe) on when the right time is to have sex. The school board's answer to that question: not until marriage. Sure, that's unrealistic, but so is everything about Maya's approach to sex education, starting with the idea that she can get away with it. As for Singh, she's funniest when she's addressing the audience directly, but she acts clumsily when she's in character, exaggerating feelings that Maya has supposedly learned to hide.
"Doin' It" aims to preach sex positivity, but it feels stuck in the immature, shock-comedy style of "American Pie" and the early Farrelly brothers films. At one point, Maya congratulates the class for not making fun of Abbey for her last name, Ho. That scene effectively encapsulates the film's central paradox: Its sense of humor is rooted in high school, while its agenda feels college-aged. Meanwhile, jokes about the character's repressive Indian-American upbringing are recycled from countless other films. Every once in a while, a raunchy sex comedy comes along that teaches jaded audiences a thing or two (John Waters usually pulls this off, as does Pamela Adlon's "Babes," which premiered at SXSW). "Doin' It" amounts to a laundry list of what not to do.
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