Poly-ish Movie Reviews

New(ish) polyamory mockumentary, Lutine , gets Joreth's special coverage to see if it's really polyamorous! Does this French fictional documentary do poly justice, or does it stick with the same old, tired, "opening up" stories and open marriages?   I was a little nervous about reviewing this film. This is an independent film from french director, whose name my American tongue is going to butcher...

Is the indie film  Shortbus really a poly film?  This movie claims to have it all - alternative sexuality, BDSM, polyamory, consensual & ethical non-monogamy, swinging, "free love", and more.    I'm just going to come right out and say it ... I didn't like this movie. I know, it's all groundbreaking with its use of real, actual, penetrative sex among the actors and it's gritty look at alternative...

Can a movie that actually describes itself as a "cautionary tale" make the Polyish Movie List?  Joreth watches Kiss Me Again to see if this couple can open up their marriage to a bisexual women into a happy polyamorous triad, or is it yet another case of bad Unicorn Hunting?   Well that was a surprise. I just watched Kiss Me Again . The Netflix summary says: "Helmed by William Tyler Smith, this ca...

Sex!  BDSM!  Bisexuality!  Comic books!  Joreth checks out what all the hubbub is about the new biopic, Professor Marston & The Wonder Women , in theaters at the time of this episode!  Here's your chance to check out a polyamorous movie on the big screen.   This movie has so much to discuss! First, let's get the obvious out of the way - this is definitely a poly movie. The plot does not shy away f...

Is the popular adult film, The Story of O , really a poly movie as so many people claim?  Joreth takes one for the team and watches this erotic film to scour it for polyamory.   I think the big problem I have with stories like the Sleeping Beauty saga and Story of O is because they never establish the main character's personal interest in BDSM. In many of these stories, she's a timid, passive sort...

Was Amelia Earhart really polyamorous?  Joreth reviews the 2009 movie with Hilary Swank to see what this version of the story has to say about it.   First of all, I'm going to give spoilers. This movie is based on a real person and historically important events, so I don't feel any need to protect people from spoilers. If you are from the US and haven't heard what happens to Amelia Earhart by now,...

Can a marriage of convenience turn into a happy polyamorous triad?  Joreth reviews The Wedding Banquet about a gay man, his lover, his green-card wife, and his very traditional Chinese parents to answer this question.   The DVD summary says "Successful New Yorker Wai Tung and his partner Simon are blissfully happy, except for one thing: Wai Tung's conservative Taiwanese parents are determined he f...

Joreth takes another foray into the world of independent, foreign films from the '60s.  From the era of Free Love, can this be a long lost poly movie?   What do you get when you take two people who don't like each other, who want totally different things out of a relationship, who are pigheaded and argumentative, and throw them together in a movie with odd music cues that stop abruptly whenever th...

A movie with the number 3 in the title can't be all bad can it?  Joreth reviews Trois , a Netflix recommendation about a unicorn-hunting threesome.   Content Note:   This review contains the sardonic use of ableist language & possibly sex-negative sex worker language intending to mock the sorts of writers who use "crazy" as a scapegoat and their poor depiction of mental illness as well as their ob...

Could there be polyamorous content in this classic play-turned-film from 1978?  Joreth reviews one of the more successful screen adaptations of a stage play as a possible polyish movie.   I first saw this movie as a kid. It was playing on some B-movie channel like USA or Lifetime, and it had already started when I came upon it. I was flipping channels, and I only stopped only because I noticed Ala...

Can Woody Allen handle polyamory?  Joreth reviews Whatever Works for a polyamorous sub-plot of a ménage à trois triad or a "household of three".   Whatever Works by Woody Allen, was recommended to me by my best friend. I'm not a Woody Allen fan. I get awfully tired of his neurotic-old-man-gets-hot-younger-woman schtick that seems to be the only kind of relationship he is capable of writing about....

Joreth reviews the BBC bio-drama of the turbulent relationship between writer Vita Sackville-West and Violet Keppel and the effect on their families.   I had such high hopes for this movie!  It's based on the true story of renowned feminist writer Vita Sackville-West, during the early part of the 20th century.  It follows her through her marriage to diplomat and writer Harold Nicolson, and her aff...

Joreth reviews a classic film of exploration starring Darryl Hannah.   If you want to see a poly movie, I can think of no better example than Summer Lovers . This movie stars Daryl Hannah and takes place in the very early 1980s in the romantic and exotic setting of a beach-side villa in Greece. Cathy and her boyfriend Michael decide to spend the summer in Greece, lounging around, soaking up the su...

The popular, award-winning Mexican film, Y Tu Mamá También , often gets a mention in poly movie lists, but is it really?  Joreth reviews it to find out!   I'm not sure which poly movie list this was on, but I don't think it was poly. It wasn't a bad movie, and it was definitely about multiple sex partners, but I don't think it was poly. The summary at Netflix says "When rich teenagers Tenoch and J...

Does Netflix' suggestions get it right?  Joreth reviews a movie called My Girlfriend's Boyfriend on the recommendation of a computer algorithm based on prior movies watched.     The description from Netflix reads: Jesse Young is a girl who has everything and maybe too much of it when she finds herself falling for two seemingly perfect guys: sexy but struggling writer Ethan and button-down advertis...

Joreth reviews the classic movie, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid with Robert Redford, Paul Newman, and Katharine Ross.  Could there be some polyamory in this Old West legend?   This is a difficult movie for me to categorize. First of all, it's a western all about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But it's not a typical Western either. Not being very familiar with the actual history (or legen...

Joreth reviews ... Futurama ?  Yes, the feature-length movie A Beast With A Billion Backs was recommended for review for polyamory.   On the recommendation of an ex partner of mine, I watched  Futurama: The Beast With A Billion Backs .  It's a poly story.  Seriously.  No, I mean it, it is! I enjoy  Futurama , but I wouldn't call myself a "fan".  I find it mildly amusing and don't object to it bein...

Was Clint Eastwood in a poly movie?  Wait, Clint Eastwood sings?  Joreth reviews the classic film Paint Your Wagon with Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin, and Jean Seaberg.   It's so much worse when they manage to get you to like a movie before they turn it to shit. I watched  Paint Your Wagon , a cheesy movie made in the 1960s very loosely based on a musical written in the 1940s based on life in Califor...

Joreth reviews the new web series, Compersion , directed by Jackie J. Stone, with Jammie Patton, Derrick LeMont, and Ka'ramuu Kush.   Wow. So, I've made it through the first 4 episodes aired so far. I'm blown away. OK, first of all, this is a new series airing on a "new digital network", aka YouTube.   Enchant TV  is the name of the network using YouTube as its channel or delivery mechanism. Secon...

There's a new TV show out entirely about a triad!  Joreth reviews the first episode of You Me Her .   I'm gonna review this new TV show one episode at a time. Which means that I don't know how it ends or where things go when I review it. And this whole thing is going to be spoilerific for each episode. This is one of those new kinds of "original shows" that the alternative entertainment providers...

Joreth reviews  Micki & Maude , a story about a bigamist who must keep his wives from meeting each other, which becomes tricky when they're both pregnant.   Micki & Maude is a bedroom farce-style romantic comedy that I was expecting to disappoint me. I'll be honest, I'm not really a big Dudley Moore fan and the idea of a poly movie put out in the last 30 years in America, as opposed to, say, a mov...

Joreth reviews  Design For Living , a movie about an MFM triad filmed in the 1930s, starring Gary Cooper, Frederic March and Miriam Hopkins.   This was on a list of poly movies, and the Netflix description reads: "Packing double éntendres and boudoir innuendos galore, director Ernst Lubitsch's racy comedy Design for Living stars Gary Cooper, Frederic March and Miriam Hopkins as an inseparable thre...

Joreth finally gets around to reviewing the webseries based on the famous book, The Ethical Slut .   As the Chief Media Archivist for the Polyamory Library at the Kinsey Institute, I got a sneak preview of the new web series,  The Ethical Slut , "inspired by" the book of the same name by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy, but then I didn't finish my review of it at the time and now there are 4 seasons...

Joreth reviews Sex And Breakfast with Macaulay Culkin, Eliza Dushku, a story of two couples having trouble in their relationships coming together to see if group sex can fix them.   As an ex-partner of mine used to say, they ought to put a label on "poly" movies to warn us that "this movie contains idiots".  This whole review is going to be filled with spoilers, because fuck this movie. We start o...

Joreth reviews  Hyde Park On Hudson with Bill Murray, Laura Linney, and Olivia Williams.  As Great Britain faces an imminent war with Germany, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, invite the King and Queen of England for a weekend at their home in upstate  New York. But during the first-ever visit of a reigning British monarch to America, international affairs must be juggled...