X
  • 2009
  • R
  • Entertainment One
  • 1 h 15 m
  • 2009
  • R
  • Entertainment One
  • 1 h 15 m

Summary 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 research...

Directed By: Daryl Wein

  • 2009
  • R
  • Entertainment One
  • 1 h 15 m
  • 2009
  • R
  • Entertainment One
  • 1 h 15 m

Sex Positive

Metascore Generally Favorable Based on 7 Critic Reviews
65
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary 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 research...

Directed By: Daryl Wein

Where to Watch

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 7 Critic Reviews
65
71% Positive
5 Reviews
29% Mixed
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 7 Critic Reviews
65
71% Positive
5 Reviews
29% Mixed
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
100
Superb new documentary.
FULL REVIEW
70
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.
By Kevin Thomas FULL REVIEW
70
It helps that Wein's subject is such a fascinating, garrulous paradox.
By Melissa Anderson FULL REVIEW
70
Daryl Wein's engrossing portrait of Richard Berkowitz is freshly engaging largely due to the subject himself.
By Dennis Harvey FULL REVIEW
63
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.
By Kyle Smith FULL REVIEW
60
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.
By Stephen Holden FULL REVIEW
60
Intermittently compelling biography.
By Elizabeth Weitzman FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

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Details

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Release Date Jun 12, 2009
Duration 1 h 15 m
Rating R
Genres
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Awards

L.A. Outfest
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
SXSW Film Festival
• 1 Nomination

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