Destricted: Critic Reviews

Destricted is a series of short films by directors and video artists ostensibly investigating the relationship between eroticism and pornography. A lot of them are dire.

Wearing its presumed scandal value like a merit badge, porn omnibus Destricted loses almost all its salacious appeal as soon as it hits the screen.

That it's taken Destricted nearly five years since its debut at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival to turn up in theaters is doubly unsurprising.

Like real sex, this collection ranges from exhilarating to frustrating, from kinky to dull - and like real porn, it will have the viewer wishing at times for a fast-forward button.

The graphic content guarantees that this will attract sensationalist attention. But, beneath the provocation and pretention, there are some interesting ideas here -- even though they're not always subtly expressed.

Whatever most of the filmmakers here were trying to achieve, it sheds no light on porn, simply reproducing it at its most trite, stale and unimaginative.

[A] mixed bag.

Full of hardcore, show-all scenes of couples getting it on, it's supposed to provoke debate about sex and art. In reality, porn has rarely triggered so many yawns.

These shorts are essentially obscene. But they're also artful and intriguing.

It's a very up-and-down affair that alternately has us reaching for a smoke and wishing it was enough already so we can just get some sleep.

Destricted is good for a few inadvertent laughs, but as a sociological statement on human sexuality, it's practically worthless.