In
Amy's Orgasm, directed by Julie
Davis, Amy Mandell had a disappointing love affair, wrote
a book with advice to women in the same boat, entitled "Why
Love Doesn't Work," and is sought after by talk show
hosts. Although her thesis is that women do not need men to
be fulfilled, one talk show host, sexist Matthew Starr (played
by Nick Chinlund), is so fascinated with her that he asks
her out on a date. Amy, surprising herself and many others,
accepts, whereupon she stops listening to her own advice in
order to try a new relationship. Her parents, who have been
needling her to find a partner, are pleased. But her agent
Janet (played by Caroline Aaron) is a Lesbian who hates men,
disapproves of Amy's apparent hypocrisy, and ultimately quits
as her agent when she gets serious about dating Matt. As Amy
self-psychoanalyzes each development in her changing relationship
with Matt, even confessing to a Catholic priest (played by
Jeff Cesario) to get his advice, she identifies differences
between men and woman that too often cause misunderstandings
and then doom relationships, such as the fact that men feel
fulfilled when women say Yes, but women feel good about themselves
when they can say No. Amy really does not really have enough
experience to be the expert that her reading public assumes,
whereas Matt's misogynistic outlook is based on unsatisfying
dates with airheads. Accordingly, they both have a lot to
learn from each other and about themselves, and the self-revelations
are often quite comical. The film has seven "chapter"
titles to define the changing relationship between Amy and
Matt: "(1) Sex is the logical outcome of love. (2) Don't
date studs. (3) Never have sex. (4) Sex is the end of romance.
(5) How well do you know him? (6) Dump him now. (7) Why love
doesn't work." Despite the epigrams and the wit, nevertheless,
Amy and Matt give in to true love in the end. In both cases,
they ultimately realize that the highest high from their orgasms
is mental, not sexual. MH
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