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DVD REVIEW | ‘Phone Sex’ Steve Balderson’s new movie, “Phone Sex,” isn’t really a movie. By the Kansas-based director’s own admission, the film, now on DVD, is more of a multimedia art installation, the sort of thing people stop to check out while wandering through the Kemper Museum. It wasn’t really made to be watched straight through. There’s no story and no real structure, just 95 minutes of people leaving voicemail messages in response to a single, deceptively simple question: What is sexy? The answers Balderson’s callers provide are anything but simple. They range from barely coherent philosophical ramblings to quick, catty jokes. The respondents have not heard each other’s messages, so there are no attempts to conform to the “right” answer. Balderson has edited the material together skillfully, highlighting its variety. A carefully rehearsed dissertation on the spiritual nature of love might be followed by a pronouncement on the hotness of Mr. Ed. Traits like confidence and honesty are repeatedly cited as turn-ons, along with various body parts and some truly bizarre fetishes (again, Mr. Ed). Some of the callers seem determined to be as outrageous as possible, so it’s nice to have their answers mixed in with the more serious ones, if only to get your attention. No matter how interesting these responses are, your mind will start to wander after a while. The only thing keeping “Phone Sex” from being a simple audio CD is Balderson’s use of digitally enhanced photography, which functions as a sort of sensual screensaver. The images sometimes relate to the spoken content, but they are just as often random and, frankly, repetitive. Yes, Humphrey Bogart had sex appeal, but how many times do we need to see slow pans of old movie stars? We get the point. The callers don’t always identify themselves, and it can be difficult to tell which ones are leaving multiple messages. The range of personalities involved is astounding (Balderson has a fascinating circle of acquaintances), with respondents as disparate as porn star Ron Jeremy and character actress (and KC native) Edie McClurg. It would be nice to have a sense of who is calling, and who some of the lesser-known people are, but identifying them might go against the film’s experimental nature. “Phone Sex” is often funny, occasionally jaw-dropping and always interesting. It may be the purest expression yet of just how diverse human sexuality can be. Just don’t try to make it the centerpiece of your next movie night. 3 Stars
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