Fridae

There’s a scene in The Kids Are All Right where Julianne Moore and Annette Benning make out while watching gay male porn. I’m given to understand that yes, lesbian women do get turned on watching men having sex with other men. In the same spirit, I’m reviewing Brown Sugar, a thai erotic anthology, in the hopes that there are readers here who get turned on watching straight people having sex with each other. Please say I’m right about this, okay?

The series of shorts in Brown Sugar seem to evoke the raunchier or more risque segments from Paris, Je’taime. No doubt there is some potential in an emotionally honest meditation on Bangkok as a sensual city whose inhabitants fall under its spell, succumbing to the multitudinous aspects of love. Love may not be exactly up for sale in these stories, but Brown Sugar’s stories explore the lure of anonymous holiday resort sex, the thrill of adultery, the liberation of role play, the fumbling enthusiasm of teenagers in lust, and the power of sensuality without sex.

As an anthology, Brown Sugar is a hit and miss affair with just a 50% pass rate. Three of the four shorts have scripts that revolve around similar reveals or turning points – which does get tired after a while. Only two of the shorts offer uncommon insights into love and the larger human condition. Only the final poignant short, a beautiful meditation on loneliness and alienation, truly deserves the stamp of arthouse erotica. Personally, I thought that final piece is worth the price of admission but your mileage may vary, depending on how patient you are of near hits and wide misses in an anthology.