Dir. Chris Waitt. UK. 2007. 89mins.

A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures is funny. The more viewers are charmed by Chris Waitt, the funnier they will find this low-budget documentary. But he's not overwhelmingly charming, even to his long-suffering mother, and doubts linger at the end as to whether he's entirely real.

In Sexual Failures, slacker Chris is chucked by his most recent girlfriend, realises he's been dumped by every woman he has ever gone out with, and decides to hit the road with a camera to interview all his exes about where he's gone wrong. The answer is fairly evident from the get-go - with a somewhat dated look modelled on Kurt Cobain, a dubious attitude to hygiene, time-keeping, work, and just about all the social niceties, it's a wonder he's ever gotten a date in the first place.

But then again, the Chris Waitt we see here would appear to be at least partially an act.

A very low-budget, not entirely rigorous effort - as if Super Size Me were made by Jay and Silent Bob - Sexual Failures feels at times like an Ali G-style calling card for Waitt. Effective marketing of what is a clever conceit should guarantee small theatrical returns in its home market but ancillary, TV in particular, will be where any action is. Sexual Failures is an oddity which could possibly score in selected international markets, with TV again being the most likely outlet.

It's the ex-girlfriends who provide most of Sexual Failures' freshness and charm, with Waitt doing a noble line in dumbstruck reaction shots which don't entirely ring true (nor do all the set-ups here and it transpires in the credits that some have been recreated). Waitt tries to reach them all for on-camera interviews, only to meet with a blank wall of indifference: 'I can't imagine why I'd want to do that,' says one. 'Fuck off,' says another.

Taking a 'guerrilla approach' to the process (his producer tells him that a gorilla would have done a better job), Waitt crashes around with his crew to no avail until his mum Hilary gets involved and ropes in some old girlfriends. The answer to the question 'why did you dump me'' becomes especially clear when one ex recalls how he got drunk and kissed her mother.

In the meantime, Chris confesses to having an erection problem, which leads him, in a very Morgan Spurlock manner, to the doctor's room, the psychiatrist's couch, and, hilariously, Irish dominatrix Miss Maisie who gives him a thorough going over. But by the time he's sung his psychiatrist a 'funny' song, popped a few too many Viagra and taken to the streets asking random women to sleep with him, the average viewer might want to give him a good going over as well.

Sexual Failures is part of a low-budget film-making initiativeand technical credits reflect that (the companies involved in Warp X are UK Film Council New Cinema Fund, EM Media, Screen Yorkshire, Film 4 and Optimum Releasing). You could say Waitt's acting was strong as well - only it's not an act. Or is it'

Production companies

Warp X

Int'l sales

Wild Bunch

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Producers

Mary Burke

Henry Trotter

Robin Gutch

Mark Herbert

Editor

Chris Dickens

Mark Atkins