Joy of Sex

Screened on blu-ray from Cinematographe. Joy of Sex is an interesting one, at least in the world of 70s and 80s teen sex comedies. Allow me to highlight what I find so interesting, because plot-wise there's not a whole lot to talk about here.

- Originally meant to be a project from National Lampoon following successes such as Animal House and Vacation, at one point even carrying the name National Lampoon's Joy of Sex, the magazine ultimately withdrew their involvement, including paying a quarter of a million to have their name removed from the title.

- At one point John Belushi was the lead of the film, with a script by John Hughes, but he died shortly after accepting the role.

- Multiple directors were attached to the project, with now-legendary director Martha Coolidge taking the helm based off her work on the now-classic 1982 Nicolas Cage-led Valley Girl.

- Some bigger names of the 80s including Colleen Camp, Ernie Hudson, Lisa Langlois, Cameron Dye and Christopher Lloyd rounded out the cast, and yet the film never took off and has been mostly forgotten since its release.

- Coolidge mentions in an interview on the 2025 Blu-ray release from Cinematographe the production was so rushed that the script wasn't even near completion at the time production started (which itself only lasted around 18 days). Paramount had purchased and owned the rights to the popular sex manual, but those rights were quickly running out.

- The studio rushed the film into production, knowing they had a steady hand familiar with the genre behind the camera. While the end results did reflect the rush to screen, and the overall consensus was bad upon it's release, on review 40+ years later it works as a time capsule, and as a fascinating example of how and why projects get made in Hollywood.

- Coolidge was ultimately fired from the film after cutting gratuitous nude scenes from the film that added absolutely nothing to the plot. She chose however to keep her name on the film after given the option to go by a pseudonym.

As for me, the first viewing left me rather bored, and I didn't see it again for many years. That passage of time apparently benefited the film as I've now seen it two more times since the blu-ray release this year and I found it much more interesting a watch. Third viewing? I actually enjoyed it. What's interesting to me is all the elements are there, and an 80s teen comedy called Joy of Sex with a recognizable cast should have done pretty well. Even despite the chaos of the production, it's competently made besides an unfinished script.