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Sex Positive

EMAILPRINTRegent Releasing

Sex Positive reviews
65
9.0 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 7 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 1 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Documentary

Written by:

Directed by: Daryl Wein

Release Date:
Theatrical: June 12, 2009

Running Time: 75 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for strong sexual content including graphic dialogue and images, and for language

Maybe it took somebody with no investment in the sexual-culture wars of the 1980s, like 24-year-old filmmaker Daryl Wein, to rediscover a lightning-rod figure like safe-sex pioneer Richard Berkowitz and present him without prejudice. A one-time S/M hustler, Berkowitz and his friend Michael Callen, supported by controversial AIDS researcher Joseph Sonnabend, began urging gay men to avoid unprotected sex as early as 1982 -- and were treated as pariahs by the mainstream gay community. Berkowitz is a fascinating, prickly, decidedly unsaintly character, and Wein's film provides a fascinating and crucial slice of traumatic sexual history that's all but invisible to younger generations. (Regent Releasing)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle David Wiegand

Superb new documentary.

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70

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

In his illuminating, timelessly timely Sex Positive documentary, Daryl Wein calls attention both to unjustly neglected pioneering AIDS activist Richard Berkowitz and his still widely ignored groundbreaking promotion of safe sex.

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70

Variety Dennis Harvey

Daryl Wein's engrossing portrait of Richard Berkowitz is freshly engaging largely due to the subject himself.

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70

Village Voice Melissa Anderson

It helps that Wein's subject is such a fascinating, garrulous paradox.

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63

New York Post Kyle Smith

For gays who remember the nightmare, Sex Positive may be too depressing to watch. But the movie strikes a cautionary tone for a younger generation that, it says, isn't taking the HIV threat seriously.

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60

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Intermittently compelling biography.

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60

The New York Times Stephen Holden

The movie jolts you with the realization that the AIDS epidemic and the public debate about such issues have retreated so far under the news radar as to be half-forgotten.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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