Praise

 

Do not bring a date to this film, unless you're trying to tell him/her that you just want to be friends. By the time you're done watching the movie, neither one of you is likely to find sex very appealing. Following along the lines of the old MAD magazine paradigm that the only thing harder than finding the girl of your dreams is getting rid of her, Praise follows Gordon (Peter Fenton), a low-energy convenience store clerk, as he moves in with his friend Cynthia (Sacha Horler), who turns out to be a rabid nymphomaniac. At first, the sex scenes are erotic and exciting, but as the film goes on, we, like Gordon, become successively bored, then repelled by the idea of banging Cynthia morning, noon, and night. In the meantime, one has to wonder: If they really all live out in the middle of nowhere, why does Gordon live in a cramped boarding house full of weirdos? If your sympathy level for apathetic drug addicts and drunks is low, you may find little to tolerate, but it's understandable that Gordon, Cynthia, and their friends would simply be so bored as to venture into self-destructive habits. And when even the self-destructive habits become boring and routine, then what? The film, adapted by Andrew McGaha from his novel, and directed by John Curran, offers no answers. It definitely has an effect, but it's far from pleasant.