Easier with Practice

Now, before internet porn came along and gave every kind of fetishist a portal for their most perverse fantasies, be it watching a fat naked woman eating a pie and crying or something of the Two Girls, One Cup variety, phone sex was a thriving industry. Even today, late night television viewing rewards us with 1-900 infomercials featuring dazed Eastern European women in unflattering outfits, occasionally with cold sores, suggesting a reasonable market for naughty phone talk. Knowing this, I moved past my main issue with Easier with Practice, which is the fact that Davy Mitchell (Brian Geraghty) responds to a phone call from a strange woman claiming to be sticking her fingers in her bajingo by grabbing his dong, rather than saying, "Well, I hope you washed your hands, dear" and hanging up. And after this five-minute stationary shot of Brian Geraghty's facial expressions while masturbating and talking vividly about what this random woman's various orifices might feel like on his hoo-ha, this low-key indie film actually turns out to be quite engrossing and human. Because Davy is somewhat of an introvert, nearing 30 without any discernable relationship skills, and fancying himself some sort of ersatz writer, his romantic affectations for a fantasy woman with no verbal bounds seems palatable. There is not much of a plot beyond this character study, with most of the film detailing Davy's passive abuse from his domineering brother Sean (Kel O'Neill) and his awkward jabs at a relationship with the comely Samantha (Marguerite Moreau) while romancing a stranger on the phone named Nicole. What we have is an insightful observation of feeling inferior and removed from social norms, played with sensitivity and complexity by Geraghty. How it all pans out may surprise some and seem obvious to others, which is incidental to the overall experience of a quiet, smart, visibly low budget actors' piece that tells the story of someone normally left on the periphery. No special features are included with the DVD, but the stationary shot of Davy receiving a phone call from Nicole while broken down in front of a building with the words "Eat My Asshole" spray painted on the side will stay with me always.