Sex and Death 101.

"Daniel Waters reunites with his Heathers star Winona Ryder for Sex and Death 101, yet any hope for similar genre-tweaking black comedy is negated by a tale that struggles mightily to stay on track for even the first of its two hours," writes Nick Schager in Slant.

"There's a decidedly throwback air to the whole endeavor, from the presence of Winona Ryder and The Facts of Life's Natalie to its distinctly 'Take Back the Night' sexual politics," writes Nick Pinkerton in the Voice.

"You know, I want to give writer-director Daniel Waters an A for ambition with Sex and Death 101, even if the actual movie is an awkward, uncinematic mishmash," writes Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. "Waters has at least tried to write a sex comedy that isn't aimed at titty-fixated 17-year-olds, and at its best Sex and Death 101 has a fast, clever rhythm that almost sings. It's mean in a large-spirited, misanthropic manner, not in a laugh-at-the-fat-girls way, and its fatalistic, pseudo-metaphysical plot is cheerfully and purposefully idiotic."

"The appealing [Simon] Baker never manages to find the right tone for the material, partly because he's been seriously miscast (he radiates too much decency and intelligence for the role), though more because Mr Waters never establishes a coherent tone for either the character or his situation," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. "I'm not exactly sure what [Winona Ryder's] doing in this film, and I don't believe that Mr Waters or Ms Ryder know either."

"Ryder owns the film," declares Mark Peikert in the New York Press.

"[T]his concept of a Bro Romantic Comedy, or 'Brom-Com,' is impossible to take seriously, even as Waters tries so hard to make Sex and Death commercially viable," writes John Lichman at the House Next Door.

Paul Cullum profiles Waters for the Los Angeles Times; and Stephen Saito talks with him for the IFC.

Posted by dwhudson at April 5, 2008 9:12 AM