It's hard to know how to rate what is basically an instructional video, but LOVE SKILLS comes with enough of an oddball pedigree that it's at least worth reviewing. Directed by the same guy who would helm MST3K favorite SPACE MUTINY a few years later (not to mention innumerable other B-movie genre mishmashes), it also features 70s porn stalwart Rick Cassidy and 80s scream queen Michelle Bauer as two of the models.
Proving no genre is too obscure to eventually be cannibalized by the studios, LOVE SKILLS basically apes the model of white coaters from a decade earlier. Starting out with a concerned suited type laying out the film's intellectual pedigree, the movie quickly launches into a stream of semi-scientific psychobabble - related by alternating male and female narrators - encouraging viewers not to compare their bodies to unrealistic ideals and to engage in personal exploration of themselves and their partners. A section on sexual positions filches photos from the KAMA SUTRA, explicitly calling to mind early white coaters like Matt Cimber's MAN & WIFE, which filled up more than half its runtime with an exhaustive, pseudo-scientific rundown of sex positions.
Thankfully, LOVE SKILLS finishes strong with a section on fantasy, providing possibly the greatest Rinse Dream movie Rinse never made. Purporting to cover "common male and female sexual fantasies" that the film presents in maddeningly unspecific terms (think "having people watch you"-level generic), the art direction in these vignettes is off-the-wall: characters wear '80s Day-Glo sunglasses, there's neon everywhere, and all the sets are stylized to the point of expressionism, with a large blue spot on the ground standing in for a pool, etc. As insane '80s time capsules go, it's one of the best I've seen; drop some of your favorite controlled substance and you'll be in heaven.
Production values are generally slick, with a fair amount of mobile camerawork and dreamy dissolves and superimpositions. It's nice to see an old school XXXer like Cassidy popping up here too, still looking good and probably happy to be getting back to his softcore roots. I didn't pick out Bauer, but wasn't aware she was even in it until the end credits - a nice surprise. While some of the sociological material is obviously dated or, at the very least, comes off pollyannaish by this point in time, the film is nevertheless well-intentioned, and a fun softcore time-killer. It may not turbo-charge your love life, but if you're looking for a weird cultural time capsule or found art head film, it's entertaining.
Proving no genre is too obscure to eventually be cannibalized by the studios, LOVE SKILLS basically apes the model of white coaters from a decade earlier. Starting out with a concerned suited type laying out the film's intellectual pedigree, the movie quickly launches into a stream of semi-scientific psychobabble - related by alternating male and female narrators - encouraging viewers not to compare their bodies to unrealistic ideals and to engage in personal exploration of themselves and their partners. A section on sexual positions filches photos from the KAMA SUTRA, explicitly calling to mind early white coaters like Matt Cimber's MAN & WIFE, which filled up more than half its runtime with an exhaustive, pseudo-scientific rundown of sex positions.
Thankfully, LOVE SKILLS finishes strong with a section on fantasy, providing possibly the greatest Rinse Dream movie Rinse never made. Purporting to cover "common male and female sexual fantasies" that the film presents in maddeningly unspecific terms (think "having people watch you"-level generic), the art direction in these vignettes is off-the-wall: characters wear '80s Day-Glo sunglasses, there's neon everywhere, and all the sets are stylized to the point of expressionism, with a large blue spot on the ground standing in for a pool, etc. As insane '80s time capsules go, it's one of the best I've seen; drop some of your favorite controlled substance and you'll be in heaven.
Production values are generally slick, with a fair amount of mobile camerawork and dreamy dissolves and superimpositions. It's nice to see an old school XXXer like Cassidy popping up here too, still looking good and probably happy to be getting back to his softcore roots. I didn't pick out Bauer, but wasn't aware she was even in it until the end credits - a nice surprise. While some of the sociological material is obviously dated or, at the very least, comes off pollyannaish by this point in time, the film is nevertheless well-intentioned, and a fun softcore time-killer. It may not turbo-charge your love life, but if you're looking for a weird cultural time capsule or found art head film, it's entertaining.