Actors have an old saying. If you’re not getting work, create work for yourself.
Career bit player Alexi Wasser takes that advice with “Messy,” a comedy about a single thirtysomething sexing her way through many Mister Wrongs in a hunt for Mister Right.
It’s more gutsy than funny, because not many actresses — even youngish and thin ones — would try to make a splash by putting it all out there as a character who has embraced her promiscuity and not quite reconciled to any goal beyond that.
Wasser doesn’t just spend a lot of on camera time nude, in the throes of hook-up passion in a variety of settings, situations and positions and with a wide array of partners. She gives herself monologues in extreme closeup, inane, semi-amusing jump-cut rambles that invite us to give thought to her makeup, her hair style, her dentistry and the general state of her pores.
I couldn’t decide if she was showing us her bravery, brazen self-confidence or a delusional fantasy that she’s living out.
In any event, she’s more interesting than her movie, which presents her as Stella, an Angelino just moved to New York, getting over a breakup by blitzing through bartenders and bar-owners, party pickups and street flirters, teenagers and 50somethings (Adam Goldberg) trying to pass for 40somethings.
“I’m just a chunky, texting, phone-calling, deeply-feeling girl in a ‘TLDR’ ‘LOL’ world,” Stella declares, giving a hint of the insecurities driving her lust (She’s about as “chunky” as a swizzle stick).
She overshares with taxi and uber drivers, bar pick-ups and her new friends (Ruby McCollister, Merlot) and with her many temp lovers mid-coitus. She screams about love and desire and particular sexual preferences in the frenzy of the moment, and doesn’t fret about birth control, hygeine or anything else until the trance of passion passes.
“I say ‘Yes’ to what is” sounds like a line cribbed from a women’s mag. “I just wish men would face the fact that all women love Target, ‘Real Housewives,’ crystals, ‘Sex and the City’ and astrology!” Yes, she’s thirtysomething going on AARP-something.
One barfly Stella meets (Ione Skye of “Say Anything”) gives her solid advice about “just meeting the wrong person until you meet the right one.” The “wrong” ones are played by the likes of Goldberg, Thomas Middleditch and Jack Kilmer.
Mario Cantone brings some bitchy flair to the magazine editor Stella tries to impress with her writing when it’s really her “Sexing My Way Through the City” travelogue that’s killer content.
“Messy” lives down to its title in too many ways to recommend it. It’s vulgar in the myriad ways it reaches for coarse laughs. There are several smirks, a couple of near chuckles and nothing more as far as “sex comedy” giggles go.
And I don’t know if it gave Wasser the star vehicle bounce she wanted out of this “put it all out there” project. But give it up to her for swinging for the fence, in close-up or in the nude in a “Sex and the City” that’s carnal, crass and controlled-substance contemporary for a new era. Let’s just hope that her parents were OK with it.
Rating: 16+, explicit sex, drug abuse, slapping, nudity and profanity
Cast: Alexi Wasser, Adam Goldberg, Ruby McCollister, Merlot, Thomas Middleditch, Mario Cantone and Ione Skye.
Credits: Scripted and directed by Alexi Wasster. A Vertical release on Amazon Prime.
Running time: 1:22
