Release Date: December 6, 2013 (Limited)
Currently Available via OnDemand Platforms
Director: Johnathan Gurfinkel
MPAA Rating: NR
Film Pulse Score: 7/10
When the movie begins, we find that the title is “Six Acts” rather than what I had imagined which was “Sex Acts” and yet the title could really be appropriately either. It does take place in six acts, but each includes a sexual encounter, most of them more involved than the previous one. It is a disturbing and unnerving Israeli film, actually taking me over the course of several days to watch as I kept having to leave it. It tells the story of Gili and her desire to become popular at her new high school by having sexual encounters with guys in the “in crowd.”
Gili apparently likes Tomer, and has a sexual encounter with him. His friend is the rich, good-looking, popular Omri who will then hit on Gili and have a dry-humping encounter with her in a pool in front of Tomer. This is “Act One” and “Act Two.” “Act Three” involves Gili giving Omri a blowjob while another boy – Shabat – watches and touches her buttocks. It is frustrating watching her put herself in situations where she knows she’ll be uncomfortable – situations in which things will happen to her that she doesn’t necessary to want to happen but knows will end up happening. But Gili wants these things to happen, and yet she’s also incredibly passive during these encounters with the boys. That is one of the things that made the film so difficult to watch. Gili is sort of asking for it, and yet she’s also so passive when around Omri (in particular). A group of popular girls make fun of what she’s wearing behind her back, but when she meets up with them and tells them that she’s “hooked up” with Tomer and Omri they seem impressed. They are also impressed when she gets them into a club using Omri’s name. All of it feeds into Gili’s lack of self-esteem and need for approbation.
“Act Four” involves a sexual encounter with yet a fourth guy and Omri. Here, Omri is more forceful with Gili than he has been before. Up to this point, Omri has been playful with Gili, calling her “sweet” and “beautiful” among other things. But when she disses the fourth guy who is a part-owner of the club they are in, Omri gets upset with her particularly when she refuses to let Omri have intercourse with her in the men’s bathroom. She leaves the club and is picked up by Shabat in his car. He’s nice to her and takes her home; but he wants something from her, it’s obvious. In “Act Five,” she goes to Shabat’s place after not being able to meet up with Omri who she really likes and wants to be with. With Shabat, she puts up her most aggressive fight back and yet the two end up having sexual intercourse. He thinks she wants it; after all, she has done everything necessary to create her reputation as an “easy” girl among the guys at her new high school.
“Act Six” finds Gili in Omri’s bedroom with a bunch of guys. I’ll leave the details out as the film’s climax should be left to the audience. Gurfinkel perfectly brings everything together in the last 15 minutes – all the film’s uneasiness comes to a head in the final act. Sivan Levy plays Gili as an unhappy girl who is embarrassed by where she lives and the parents with whom she lives. Levy brings depth to Gili despite all the superficial actions in which she engages. As I said, it is a difficult film to watch and yet was rewarding when considered as a whole. After finishing it, I wish I had had the nerve to watch it in one viewing rather than in the piecemeal fashion I chose. Watching the acts of what could be called “sexual abuse” was just too painful to take in one right after the other. It is to Gurfinkel’s credit and to Levy’s that the film pulls no punches in its exploration of one girl’s self-induced exploitation by a group of guys all for the sake of a sense of acceptance.
