Kinsey (movie review)

Well acted, charming, and for the most part tasteful, although some scenes are about as appetizing as that guy in Super Size Me tossing his burger (another science project that made it to the big screen).

I'd never tuned in the Kinsey story nor read his books (we had plenty of psychology books on our shelves, but mostly of 1960s vintage, plus I'd look up sex words in the Britannica). I'm left wondering at the seeming mismatch between his desire to relieve human suffering, and the approach. Like, the guy is in serious boddhisatva mode. However, I personally don't think randomly sampling people's sex communications is going to unravel the mysteries any more successfully than eavesdropping on their random telephone conversations. The cross-section is too arbitrary, even if the common denominators (bed, nudity -- telephone?) appear strong.

That being said, he clearly did relieve a lot of suffering. Even today, when the clock is ticking counter-clockwise, and people fear the ghost of Joe McCarthy under every bed, youth culture stands to gain a healthy dose of antibodies from viewing this movie (I saw lots of teenagers in our audience at Fox Tower -- they seemed quietly respectful, if a tad shocked).

Anyway, I think he worked too hard. That funding fizzled on what would have been even harder work on ahead appeared merciful in retrospect. I hope I don't get that obsessed. Remind me to stop and smell the sequoias.

Great to see Tim Curry again. Those few who are unfamiliar with his performance in Rocky Horror will miss that he's here playing the perfect foil to himself -- a brilliant casting decision.