JUST LOOKING A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
It was a more innocent time, a time when teenagers weren't bombarded daily with sexual images from multiple media sources. Although it may have been a more naive era, it was one brimming with sexual curiosity. JUST LOOKING, set in the New York City boroughs in 1955, tells a coming of age story about a fresh-faced Jewish kid named Lenny (Ryan Merriman) in the summer before he begins ninth grade.
Actor Jason Alexander (George from the "Seinfeld" television series) lovingly directs JUST LOOKING with passionate attention to detail. The sets, the cars, the costumes, everything about the production is authentically nostalgic. Well, everything save the cheesiest lightning storm this side of an Ed Wood movie.
Lenny is a man on a mission, or given his age, one might better call him a boy bound for adventure. He vows to one and all that this summer he is "going to see two people 'doing it' -- no matter what!" A similar story set in modern times would have his ambition be to lose his virginity, probably after a surreptitious bout of drinking. But back then, the mere vicarious pleasure of witnessing sex provided more titillation than a young teen could even imagine.
Lenny's quest begins when he is sent to "the country" for the summer to live with his Jewish aunt (Ilana Levine) and her decidedly non-Jewish husband (Peter Onorati). Leaving his city home in the Bronx, he moves all the way to New York City's version of the country -- 133rd Street in Queens, which features actual, albeit tiny, backyards and even a small and overgrown vacant lot that could serve as a temporary park.
In the sticks, Lenny is invited by neighborhood kids, Johnny (Joey Franquinha), Alice (Amy Braverman) and Barbara (Allie Spiro Winn), to join their -- now whisper this -- "sex club." No, it's not at all what you think. It turns out to be something akin to a sex education class, but run by students, that is decades ahead of its time. Although obsessed with finding and sharing sexual information -- Alice fancies herself a Nancy Drew-style detective -- they would never practice any of the stuff themselves, especially since the girls frequently point out that they are Catholic, very Catholic. Alice, who once accidentally witnessed her parents having sex when she was 10, describes it to the other eager pupils. It is "like a wrestling match on TV, but they're not two men and it's not TV." Well, that certainly explains it all.
The opportunity to turn their dry discussions into a laboratory course comes in the person of a fetching young adult named Hedy (Gretchen Mol). She is a nurse who was once an underwear model. To be specific, she wore bras while photographers took her picture for lingerie catalogs. Lenny feels like he has died and gone to heaven when he hears about her. There is no one whom he would rather catch in the act of doing it than the gorgeous and affable Hedy. The beauty of the story is the way in which he ends up abandoning his desire for cheap thrills. He truly comes of age that summer.
JUST LOOKING runs 1:37. It is rated R for sexual content and language and would be acceptable for teenagers.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
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