I Am a Sex Addict (2005)

Such a frustrating disappointment

not horrible nor great

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A Masterpiece!

An unleashed, nonstop documentation of one man's thinly veiled attempt to annoy every available woman and prostitute he can find the nerve to approach. His addiction is not so much to having sex with prostitutes, but to endlessly approaching them, pricing the act, and then saying "I'll have to think about it." Lather, rinse, repeat, with every opportunity taken to confess his every thought to his current girlfriend in the supposed interests of honesty and openness.The redeeming realism of the film crops up in a fairly straightforward reporting of the hideous effects of this behavior. Do not expect much fun from the sexual adventures - there's some fairly graphic content, but it's about as joyless as it comes.

It's been more than 48 hours since I watched this pitiful exercise in ego masturbation disguised as film, and I still can not erase that truly vile scene of the narrator receiving oral sex, out of my mind. While I can admire anyone willing to open up and bare their soul on camera warts and all, throughout the entire movie, I never once got the feeling that the director/star ever felt a bit of remorse that his obsession with hookers lead to the demise of several of his relationships with women. He also comes across as an egomaniac as well: none of the real women he was in relationships with look anything like the porn stars he used in the reenactments.Find a better way to waste 90 minutes of your life.

While films like Capote, Brokeback Mountain and A History of Violence were gathering awards, this film managed to win at the only awards ceremony that has a category of "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You." Caveh Zahedi, who wrote, directed and starred in the quirky like film shows great promise and the film was very enjoyable. If you are a Woody Allen fan, then you will definitely enjoy Zahedi.Sure, it is low budget, and it changes from monologue to docudrama to montage - it is really not hard to follow as we are exploring Zahedi's addiction to prostitutes and the effect on his relationships. This avant garde comedy will keep you interested, if only to see what he will say to his next girlfriend.

The Holy Moment- Caveh Zahedi's Quest For Truth In Cinema.Although it has a lurid title that invokes B movies of the 1950's, "I Am A Sex Addict" is an original work of art that will challenge your ideas of films, reality, and the nature of relationships between a man and a woman. Caveh Zahedi is the director and star of this de-facto home movie, and to say he is a talented filmmaker would be an incomplete sentence. Zahedi is a performance artist, somebody who has the unique ability to flaunt his flaws with honesty and still be able to bond with his audience.My first exposure to the mind of Caveh Zahedi (like many others) came during Richard Linklater's animated "Waking Life" (which I consider one of the best films of this decade). Caveh discusses Andre Brazan's Theory of "The Holy Moment", in which since everything is God- film captures God in every frame. This sort of chatter could be dismissed as philosophical bullshit, but that scene (where at the conclusion the two characters attempt a holy moment and turn into clouds) always resonated with me. Pictures, film, and video have been in our lives since we were born, so we have demystified them. But when you think enough about how amazingly strange the process of "capturing moments" is then you can truly wrap your brain around what I Am A Sex Addict is trying to accomplish.The film (which is part documentary, part fiction, and with a dash of "reality TV" thrown in for good measure) opens up with Caveh in the rectory of a church beginning his confessional about his addiction to prostitutes. He is minutes away from being married (for real), and this decision to begin the story at this moment is one that will elicit groans of tastelessness and exploitation. But this is a perfect place to start the movie, since this joyful hope (what is more optimistic than a wedding?) of the present time makes us relax to what will follow.And the next hour and a half or so will force you to abandon all preconceived notions of truth, sex, and relationships. And more importantly- what it is that constitutes film-making. Because "I Am A Sex Addict" uses every tool of the trade- there's still pictures, old home movies, animation, reenactments of real life events, dear-diary-type confessions, and the behind-the-scenes footage of the frustration of trying to recreate what really happened.Is there a plot? Well, I suppose it is Caveh's search for a soul mate and his desire to rid himself of his prostitute addiction. Those two things are his goals, and they drive the film forward. I won't spoil what happens during this quixotic adventure, but I will say that Caveh travels the world and meets all kinds of interesting people (mostly whores but some really cool "regular" women) and the events are documented in an entertaining, comical, and honest manner."I Am A Sex Addict" is all about the obsessions and compulsions of its director/writer/actor, but it never dissolves into narcissism or solipsistic fare. How does Caveh accomplish this? First of all, the film was made with a light comic touch and never takes itself too seriously. Secondly it never devolves into sexual conquest bragging or even celebrates the idea of being a Don Juan-type character. And third, it is trying to be honest and real about sex- the scenes depicting the act might be blunt but they are never glorifying. If anything, when we see Caveh having an orgasm it only brings to mind the vulnerability and ridiculousness of how we are when we're naked and engaging in this passionate state.This film received a very limited release, and the only reason I even heard of it is because I read an article about Caveh Zahedi in the SF Weekly (he lives in San Francisco). I believe it played at The Roxie (a great theatre in The Mission where I last saw a Hal Hartley film), but I missed it. Fortunately "I Am A Sex Addict" is available on DVD and you can put it in your queue on Netflix. I recommend you do so at once. It will make you forget (for awhile at least) all the crappy and formulaic films that are released by the major studios every week.*This review and many others can be found on: http://amodelcommunity.blogspot.com/