Film Reviews

A Complete History of My Sexual Failures

• Rating:
• Director: Chris Waitt
• Starring:
• Details: UK / 90mins (18).

The idea is genius in its simplicity: a frustrated independent filmmaker tracks down every woman he's ever gone out with to find out why they dumped him. With his boom in hand Nick Broomfield style, Waitt - coming across like the unhappy medium of Jarvis Cocker and Nick Hornby - travels up and down the country, throwing himself at the mercy of the wolves. Most of the feedback results in the following: "All I can remember is that you were a jerk", "an arse", "an arsehole", "a lazy arse" and "you were the worst boyfriend I ever had." One woman wrote him a letter that opened with 'Dear Shitfuck..' Another felt that Chris was mentally unstable when they were a couple: "You believed you were Jesus for a while," something Chris doesn't deny. Another threatens to sue if he mentions her at all. Waitt tries to get to the bottom of all of this, and reckons it's because of his failure to maintain an erection during sex; the director tries Viagra, psychosexual counselling, hypnotherapy and even an S&M session to fire up the dormant engines below deck. Waitt plays around with the is-it-real-or-not angle (the pain he endures in the S&M basement certainly looks real) but one or two interviews look too staged to be realistic. With his witty and self-deprecating voiceover (Waitt does play up the 'poor me' angle a little too much), A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures is a lot of fun and a must for every guy out there.

Review by Gavin Burke