Review of A Complete History of My Sexual Failures (2008) by Emily O — 16 Aug 2008

A documentary , or a comedy, or both? For me, a lot of the fun of this frequently hilarious film was working out which bits, if any, really reflected filmmaker Chris Waitt's personal history. I became increasingly convinced that the whole thing was pure Spinal Tap-style spoof documentary as the situations became more and more preposterous. The Viagra episode seemed way too silly to be true, and the dominatrix in the justly infamous, wince-inducing dungeon scene looked to be having an awful lot of trouble stopping herself from laughing.

But then there came a reunion that looked very real indeed, washenuinely moving and turned the laughter in the cinema to silence. Waitt's remark that perhaps the main purpose of the film had been to set up that moment seemed entirely plausible. Anyway, whatever the truth behind what's on screen, here is a very funny film that almost all of us will be able to identify with to some extent... unfortunately.