Review of A Complete History of My Sexual Failures (2008) by M M — 22 Feb 2013

It is difficult to tell if Waitts is playing up himself as a caricature of a narcassistic, self pitying ex-boyfriend on purpose. The documentary starts off with a seemingly sincere quest for perspective about failed relationships but, as ex girlfriends evade interviews or give him the honest truth about his dishonest and flaky attitudes or his verbally abusive tendencies, (even a therapist points towards underlying misogyny in his attitudes about sex and women) Waitts retreats from reality, abandoning his quest to better himself, and focuses on his inability to perform sexually during one-night stands....which first leads him into a BDSM dungeon and then, much later, to sexually harassing women on the streets after downing a handful of Viagra. (Which takes away any sympathy you might have had for him after have his balls tortured during the BDSM session.).

He is a grossly unsympathetic character and it is hard to tell if that was the artist's intention. In any case, the documentary falls flat, providing no real insight to the human condition and the epiphany Waitts so desperately needed never arrives. Instead, his project ends with him starting a new relationship, with the same patterns and pitfalls as the others, to distract him from the anxiety of his previous failures.

One would think that Waitts does not possess the ability to empathize and has given up on trying. You might spend the duration of the film waiting for him to finally "get it" but will realize, at the end, this was (perhaps satire?) a vanity project about a lost cause.

If there is one bright note in his story, he does reconnect with an ex who moved on with her life and had a baby that he seems genuinely happy about.