Movie Review: 'Sex Appeal' is a Sex Positive Teen Comedy Lacking Its Own Identity

I’m not quite sure what to make of the new Hulu teen comedy Sex Appeal. On the one hand, it’s good to see a sex positive movie with a good message about seeking safe, consensual, and pleasurable sex. On the other hand, the jokes and characters feel lifted from various other teen comedies and sitcoms. Director Talia Osteen has made both a sex positive teen comedy and a movie about as sexy the sex talk you might get from your cool aunt.

Sex Appeal stars Mika Abdalla as Avery, a straight A student who prides herself on being good at everything she does. However, when her equally intellectually driven boyfriend proposes that they take their relationship to the next level, Avery is thrown for a loop. Since Avery is good at everything she feels the need to be good at sex as well. Meanwhile, Avery will be seeing this long distance boyfriend at an upcoming STEM competition, one where she’s been challenged to develop an app that solves a personal problem.

In a way, it’s kismet, Avery has a personal problem, needing to learn about sex, and she has the scientific method to help her solve the problem. Thus, Avery sets about creating Sex Appeal, an app that will teach her how to be good at sex. But how does one create an app to teach them sex when they have no idea what good sex might be like? Here’s where the scientific method kicks in, Avery seeks help from her friend Larson (Jake Short) to work on a series of experiments that will help her determine what good sex is.

If you’re thinking this sounds like a plot from a reverse gender episode of The Big Bang Theory, you’re right, it’s a lot like that. Avery even has a thing for speaking Klingon and her app employs the computer simulated voice of Leonard Nimoy, Spock from Star Trek, as the voice of what good sex will be like. That said, the makers of Sex Appeal don’t lean too far into Geek culture, just enough for a few rejected Big Bang Theory gags. The rest of the movie is Frankenstein parts of 80s teen comedies, right down to a character holding an IPhone over their head in an approximation of that beloved scene from Say Anything.

The meat of the plot of Sex Appeal is a gender flip of 80s teen rom-com where a foolish and short sighted character longs for one unattainable love while the love of their young life is standing right in front of them. Avery is incapable of understanding that Larson is in love with her and her arc is coming to understand through her experimenting that there is more to sex than just the physical elements of pleasure. That's not a bad arc and really, there is nothing terribly wrong with Sex Appeal except that it appears to have no personality of its own. It's a gender flipped 80s teen comedy with elements of The Big Bang Theory and a positive attitude about sex.

The direction is… fine. Director Talia Osteen appears to have dabbled in every aspect of entertainment as a singer and songwriter, an actress, a documentary director, and now feature film director. She appears rather reminiscent of her main character, a high achiever who is legitimately good at just about everything she does. Osteen’s feature debut is ambitious and it has a few really good ideas which makes it pleasant enough, it earns a few smiles, but unfortunately, Sex Appeal lacks a sense of self, a sense that it is more than just a confluence of outside interests.

Sex Appeal is like a good cover band, it’s okay for a night at a bar but then you’re going home to listen to the originals. If I want The Big Bang Theory or Say Anything, I’m not going to watch something that reminds me of The Big Bang Theory or Say Anything, I'm going to watch the actual show/movie. And that’s the big failing of Sex Appeal, an ultimately fatal flaw, the movie has no identity of its own. Sex Appeal lacks a personality, it lacks something to elevate it beyond being sex positive and having gags cribbed from pop culture artifacts. The film never finds its own identity and falters in the comfort of being familiar.

And that's a real shame because the movie gets a lot right about sex. Sex Appeal plays PG-13, at times downright wholesome, and yet it still manages to be positive about sex and demonstrates a group of characters who are comfortable talking about sex and about what they enjoy. For decades teen sexuality and sex in mainstream movies has been about shame and fear and the awkward laughs that come from the squishy aspects of sex. We've heard a million jokes about how bad people can be at sex. Sex Appeal has a few of those jokes as well but the film can be commended for being unashamed about a lead character who is curious and seeking enjoyable sex.

The character of Avery may approach sexuality with the subtlety of a sledgehammer but this aspect of her personality is rarely treated as a fault. Avery may be awkward but she is openly accepted by her classmates, encouraged to seek pleasure, and roundly welcomed when she asks probing questions about sex. A character in Sex Appeal played by Paris Jackson is treated as a guru of sex positivism and rather than being called names, she's spoken of in positive terms and proves to be a friendly and knowledgeable guide. In other movies, Jackson's character would be a fallen woman, shunned and poked fun at. Here's she treated with respect and thought highly of.

This speaks of the good intentions of Sex Appeal but a movie needs more than good intentions to be a good movie. Sex Appeal needs a second gear something that makes the movie truly special. The movie needs a personality that is specific to this movie. I like a lot of this movie but a lot of what I like about it is what it takes from other pop culture artifacts. I see a good deal of Sheldon Cooper and Leonard from The Big Bang Theory in Avery and a whole lot of Ducky and Lloyd Dobler in Larson. I wanted these characters to become something more unique but it never really happens despite a smart ending that, at the very least, bucks expectations.

Sex Appeal debuts on Hulu on January 14th, 2022.