I WANT CANDY

UK, 2007, 87 minutes, Colour.
Tom Riley, Tom Burke, Carmen Electra, Eddia Marsan, Mackenzie Crook, Philip Jackson, John Standing, Michelle Ryan, Jimmy Carr.
Directed by Steven Surjik.

A lightly lewd jokey British comedy about film students, desperate to make a movie, who get tangled up with some gangsters and porn film-makers. You can guess the rest and you would be generally right: lots of mix-ups, filming in the family home, criminal threats, hopes for a career and their being dashed, culminating in a happy ending and the equivalent of the Oscars for the porn industry.

It would be silly to take this one too seriously – it doesn’t take itself very seriously although the cast work earnestly and with energy. There are some crass moments but nothing like scenes in the early Scary Movies and the sex scenes are brief and mild, less explicit than in the British comedies of the 1970s in the Confessions of a… series.

It has the Ealing Studios logo which could mean that some veterans of the heyday of the 1950s might be turning in their graves!

1. The blend of the comic and the serious? Students? The film industry? Pornography? Produces and gangsters? University courses in filmmaking?


2. The title, Candy, her reputation, Candy Fiveways, porn actress, the real character, performance, sex?

3. Joe and Baggy, their homes, parents, study, hopes, the first film and its failure, the film course, short films, lack of resources, the lecturer and his attitude?

4. Their characters, their friends, parents, girlfriends?

5. The idea, money, Doug, De Vere, the spiel? Mistaking the nature of the production company? The sex films, the posters, manners? The promise?

6. The money issues, resolved by Doug and DeVere? Contracts? Expectations about Candy?

7. The making of the film, enlisting the aid of the fellow students, the agreements, the cache, motivation, sex?

8. The sex scenes, at an MA a level? Suggestive? Less explicit? The Carry On style?

9. Candy, reputation, the meeting, refusing, and agreeing, coming to the home, the filming, with the boys?

10. Doug and De Vere, being tricked, the dangers?

11. The parents, the innocence and naivete, the filming? Seeing the film?

12. The University, the film course, the lectures, arty comments? The lecturer, his character? Being impersonated, tricked? Visiting the parents? Discovering the truth?

13. The visit to the video store and the advice of the man behind the counter?

14. Doug pretending to be the lecturer, his spiel to the parents?

15. The satire in the presentation of the awards, the screening, the people present, success?

16. Tongue-in-cheek parody?