YouTube is a constant presence in our lives, providing us with mindless entertainment and amusing clips from everyday life. But as “The Virginity Hit” proves, the virtue of YouTube videos is that they’re generally only two-minute clips.
Taking its cue from dozens of teenage sex comedies before it, four high school friends make a pact to lose their virginities, taking a hit from a special bong each time one of them succeeds.
When Matt (Matt Bennett), the last member of the group, finally plans to have sex with his girlfriend, his friend Zack (Zack Pearlman) decides to document the momentous occasion with a series of YouTube videos.
Presented almost solely from a hand-held camera perspective, Zack follows Matt constantly, aiming to present a slice of teenage life. However, the movie instead seems creepily voyeuristic, and Matt comes off more like a stalker trailing the unfortunate and awkward Matt. Zack himself is a less sympathetic version of Jonah Hill’s character in “Superbad,” offering profoundly bad or downright malicious advice at every turn.
The most interesting moments of the film come from the interactions between Matt and his distant biological father. These moments are surprisingly touching and much more true to life than the two-dimensional and emotionally flat sequences the movie constantly pushes on the viewer.
Turning a YouTube video into a feature-length film is a novel idea, and “The Virginity Hit” scores occasionally with a few raw laughs. But unfortunately, brevity is the soul of wit and the film would have been much better off as a short internet vignette.
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