‘Summer of 69’ Movie Review: Sex Comedy Swaps Raunch For Heart And Laughs
Photo from Hulu
From Jeremy Kibler
The high school sex comedy Summer of 69 would fit in nicely as this generation’s Risky Business, The Girl Next Door, or The To Do List (that one where Aubrey Plaza played a bookish 18-year-old who finally learned about “finger-blasting”). The hilarious Jillian Bell makes her directorial debut from a script she co-wrote with Jules Byrne and Liz Nico, and the main reason it works so well goes to the charming chemistry between newcomer Sam Morelos and SNL cast member/celebrity impression expert Chloe Fineman.
A very endearing Sam Morelos gets her breakout lead role as Abby, a Syracuse high school senior who wants to gain sexual experience to get her classmate crush, Max Warren (a cute Matt Cornett who unfortunately looks like Armie Hammer). More specifically, she overhears that Max likes to “69,” so she wants to learn how to, um, perform that. What to do, Abby seeks help from a stripper named Santa Monica (Chloe Fineman) to become her “sexual fairy godmother.” Abby offers this stranger $20,000 (which she may or may not have from being an expert on her gaming platform), so it’s a win-win.
The plot does get a little more complicated with Santa Monica having to use her earnings to save the club and possibly take over ownership from current owner Betty Spaghetti (Paula Pell) before the sleazy Rick Richards (Charlie Day) gets it. At the same time, Abby eventually convinces Santa Monica to go to her high school reunion which she’s been dreading before a certain classmate. These threads, though, do prop up what could have been just a flimsy premise and bring a few more shadings to certain characters.
Summer of 69 obviously isn’t referring to the year 1969, nor does it feature the Bryan Adams karaoke favorite, nor is it even set during the summer yet, but it is about mutual oral sex. Besides all of the frank sex talk, this is actually more of a sweet-natured coming-of-ager than an R-rated raunchfest. It’s an ‘80s teen-comedy throwback in spirit but very much set today in how teenagers communicate with each other.
The effervescent Chloe Fineman, who has popped up in movies and stolen scenes, gets her time to shine here as Santa Monica. The character is almost a mere idea or the stripper-with-a-heart-of-gold archetype, but Fineman elevates it with her expressive face, comedic timing, and glimmers of humanity behind the pole-dancing. Paula Pell, Nicole Byer, and Liza Koshy basically hang out as Santa Monica’s close-knit group of strippers who keep their clothes on, but they make a line pop whenever they’re around. Director Bell also cameos as an indifferent sex shop clerk.
The film is grounded but never above a few flights of slapstick—Santa Monica blindfolds herself while driving so Abby can give her directions, with dangerous results—and even fancy, like the haunted-house back room of a sex toy store where Abby sees her parents wearing strap-ons. If the film hadn’t already earned so much goodwill and we didn’t care about Abby coming out on top, a few climactic clichés (i.e. The Big Speech) would have been eye-rolling. Summer of 69 at least knows Risky Business exists, following a formula but doing it with enough heart, wisdom, and laughs — and a tutorial on how to “69” if you’re as adorably clueless as Abby.
Rating: 3/5
Summer of 69 is currently streaming on Hulu.
