Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, But Were Afraid to Ask (DVD, 2000)

Ostensibly based on the famous non-fiction bestseller by David Reuben, EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX, BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK is a series of comedic sketches from writer-director-actor Woody Allen. All seven segments of the film are posed as questions taken directly from Reuben's book, but act mostly as satirical springboards for Allen's comic genius. They take many forms, from a scenario on medieval adultery to a mad scientist-monster movie parody to a send-up of Italian sex films. Like many of Allen's early films, the humor in EVERYTHING...combines both quick-witted verbal quips (bearing the influence of Groucho Marx) and outright physical slapstick, but also shows Allen evolving as a filmmaker after his previous two films, BANANAS and TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN. Although it seems the logical extension of the scattered plotting of those earlier films, the segmentation of the film allowed Allen to experiment as a filmmaker: the clean and clinical appearance of the famous final sequence would be found again in his sci-fi satire SLEEPER, and the Italian parody (among other sketches) finds Allen imitating the aesthetic features of European masters (such as Antonioni) for the first time, something he would later do again and again. EVERYTHING...is also perhaps Allen's most thoroughly outrageous and subversive comedy, touching on a number of sensitive issues and mining laughs from touchy subject matter., Woody Allen is known for his quick-witted and sometimes surreal scripts, and this film is no exception. His signature neurotic musings blend with imaginative situations to create an original work of cinema. Based loosely on a book by Dr. David Reuben, this pastiche of seven comedic vignettes is about the human sex drive and the absurd behavior it can lead to. An average middle-aged Jewish man sneaks upstairs to try on a dinner hostess's dresses; Gene Wilder plays a man who gradually falls in love with a sheep; and Allen's girlfriend can only reach satisfaction by having sex in public places, all of which lead to disastrous embarrassments for all concerned. Moments in the film range from the typical to the absurd, and Allen experiments with camera technique for a satirical send-up of European cinema. This imaginative, clever, hilarious film is classic Woody Allen at his finest.