Like A Virgin

Raunchy new teen comedy does have a heart underneath its bluster

Pictured: "The Virginity Hit" leads Nicole Weaver and Matt Bennett; a piece of the marketing campaign for the movie.

“The Virginity Hit,” a comedy opening in theaters Sept. 10 (seen in a special screening at the UCB Theatre Sept. 1), and featuring as-yet-unknowns from the UCB stable, starts slow with seemingly typical teen characters. But as it progresses, it reveals some heart and plays out an inventive story.

The title alludes to the four high school guys who are the leads in the movie and their pact to smoke pot from a special bong as each loses their virginity. The last to fall is Matt, played by Matt Bennett – all the leads use their actual names as character names, in keeping with the movie’s pseudo-documentary style.

The plot of “The Virginity Hit” starts in standard territory, with Matt close to having sex with his girlfriend Nicole (Nicole Weaver). Then, still within the documentary conceit of everything going on being filmed by Matt’s friend Justin (Justin Kline), the “American Pie” type incidents start to fly, with gastric distress ruining Matt’s night with Nicole – all while his friends spy on the goings-on from the next room in the hotel they go to.

Zack Pearlman, as the most obnoxious of Matt’s friends, leads the way after this, as the buddies take it on themselves to help get Matt laid. But slowly, amid all this, a little more depth to the characters emerges, like the facts that Matt has lost his mom to cancer, and his dad is a deadbeat who has stolen his college fund. This has the odd result of effectively making Matt more sympathetic.

Without revealing too many more plot details, it suffices to say that the cast and writer-directors Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland, along with the mentoring auspices of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay as executive producers, do succeed in giving Matt, Nicole and Matt’s friends identifiable character development arcs. They have made “The Virginity Hit” something more than its teasing promotional posters might lead you to believe.