film rating:
disc rating:
companies: Maurice Smith Productions,
Millennium, and New World Pictures
year: 1983
runtime: 80′
country: Canada
director: Rafal Zielinski
cast: Peter Keleghan, Kent Deuters,
Linda Speciale, Alan Deveau,
Linda Shayne, Jason Warren,
Jim Coburn, Terrea Smith
disc company: Severin Films
release date: October 13, 2009
retail price: $34.95
disc details: Region A / Single Layer
feature: 1080p HD
audio: Dolby Digital English [2.0]
subtitles: none
reviewed from a screener
provided by Severin Films LLC.
order this disc from Amazon.com
Plot: A motley gang of high school miscreants go on a quest to reveal the breasts of resident virgin Purity Busch.
I have to admit before delving into this review proper that I’ve never much been friends with the teen sex comedy sub-genre. I’ve not seen Bob Clark’s Porky’s, any of the multitude of American Pie iterations, or even the seminal John Landis effort Animal House. Aside from the long-ago experience of seeing Fast Times at Ridgemont High on television one very boring summer day, my experience with the sub-genre is practically nil. Consider this review to be the perspective of a complete outsider.
My first impression of Screwballs, and this isn’t meant as an insult in the least, is that it’s a tremendously stupid film. I would even go so far as to call it epic in terms of its stupidity. The humor, from character names (Purity Busch, Melvin Jerkovski, Bootsie Goodhead, and so on) on up, is about as obvious as it gets. None of this is necessarily a bad thing as far as the genre is concerned, and in the case of Screwballs the combination of obviousness and uncompromising idiocy are positive boons.
Cartoonish in the extreme (director Rafal Zielinski reveals in the commentary that the original concept for the film included thought bubbles and animated transitions), Screwballs is just a string of increasingly absurd comedy setpieces, the majority of which are based around the revelation of those holy grails of the adolescent male imagination. That said, Zielinski shows considerable restraint in the nudity department, which will undoubtedly darken the hearts of skin aficianados everywhere (a late show striptease by Raven DeLaCroix definitely helps cheer things up). It does allow for some terriffic build up to the ludicrous finale, in which Purity’s assets are finally revealed in all their glory.
While the nudity may be sparse, Screwballs more than makes up for it in its unabashed absurdity. While set in the America of the early 1960s, the production is an anochronistic mess of 80s raunch and Archy comics-inspired design. Taft and Adams (T & A, get it?) High School is a place that could never have existed realistically, be it in the past, present, or future. Classes seem limited to French and biology and the school boasts compulsory freshmen breast exams and a working aircraft maintenance shop! It’s best not to try and rationalize such things, especially for a film whose reality exists solely to facilitate hard-on jokes and breast shots.
Aside from the cathartic parting moment (undoubtedly the most patriotic nude scene ever to grace a Canadian-made American-produced sex romp), Screwballs boasts a healthy number of comedic highlights. The title refers to what is arguably the film’s most famous scene, in which an impromptu game of strip bowling (!?) leads to a memorable bit of vulgar ball-based slapstick. Other notable moments include the aforementioned compulsory breast exams, an attempt at mass hypnosis involving a giant wiener strapped to a diving board, and an accidental sexual encounter between a young home invader and Purity’s mother that almost ends in a shotgun slaughter. Where is Purity in all this? Screwing a giant Teddy bear, of course!
Arriving on the heels of Porky’s, Screwballs was evidently a big money maker for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures and was a staple of video rental shelves at the height of the VHS boom. In spite of its popularity as a cult title, the film went long unrepresented in the North American DVD market (there was a loathsome UK release in 2003), creating a niche that exploitation outfit Severin Films appears to have developed quite the itch to fill. The company has not only seen fit to distribute the film on DVD, but as part of its fantastically produced Blu-ray line as well.
Screwballs seems an odd choice to receive the HD treatment, particularly given the conditions of its archiving. Severin certainly had their work cut out for them, as the best available source for the picture appears to be a 16mm internegative – a sad state of affairs for a domestically released film less than three decades old. While presented in full AVC encoded 1080p in the original theatrical 1.66:1 aspect ratio, the image here is about as far from demo-quality material as you can get. The 16mm-sourced picture is soft and grainy, and the unrestored source is pockmarked with damage throughout. There are upsides to the format, of course, notably the strong color and contrast levels. As with many deep catalog titles, expectations are everything, and this is the best Screwballs has looked in decades and is probably the best it’s ever going to look again. Audio is presented in a decent Dolby Digital 2.0 English track that presents the source honestly, and I doubt an HD bump would add much in the fidelity department for such a low budget picture. There are no subtitles.
While the image may not have been what fans were expecting, Severin has certainly stacked supplements in this disc’s favor. The feature is accompanied by a commentary track with director Rafal Zielinski, who proves to be an amusing interviewee, and Severin Films gurus David Gregory and Joe Cregan. This is a great track for the film in question, being both lively and informative, and one of the few I’ve ever been compelled to listen to in its entirety. Next up are a spate of separate short interviews, with writers Linda Shayne (Bootsie Goodhead in the film) and Jim Wynorski, actor Kent Deuters, SPFX artist Gerald Lukaniuk, canuxploitation scholar (these exist!?) Paul Corpue, and Mr. Skin of the online skin-flick megachurch of the same name. In case that weren’t enough, Severin also provides an expansive collection of deleted scenes culled from a Spanish VHS release and a theatrical trailer to boot. All of the video supplements for Screwballs are presented in high definition, putting its tech specs ahead of many big studio releases in that regard.
So Screwballs didn’t make a sex comedy convert of me, but its reputation for absurdity is well earned. While stupid to a staggering degree I can’t say that I wasn’t entertained by the proceedings, and the director commentary only added to my appreciation. Fans of the genre are encouraged to indulge, and the loaded Severin Films Blu-ray comes highly recommended. I only wish more of the majors could be bothered to make their catalog releases this appealing.
