Sex and Death 101

Sex and Death 101
Theatrical release
Directed by	Daniel Waters
Produced by	Cary Brokaw
Written by	Daniel Waters
Starring	Simon Baker Winona Ryder Leslie Bibb Tanc Sade Patton Oswalt Retta Sophie Monk
Music by	Rolfe Kent
Cinematography	Daryn Okpa
Editing by	Trudy Ship
Distributed by	Anchor Bay Entertainment
Release date(s)	September 27, 2007 (Russia) February 22, 2008 (US)
Running time	100 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1,229,330

Sex and Death 101 is a 2007 dark comedy science fiction film written and directed by Daniel Waters released in the United States on April 4, 2008. This film marks the reunion of writer-director Daniel Waters and Winona Ryder, who previously worked on 1989's Heathers, written by Waters.

Plot

Roderick Blank (Simon Baker) is a young man with a great job as an executive for 'Swallows', a high end fast food restaurant chain, and a beautiful fiancee, Fiona Wormwood (Julie Bowen). On the day of his bachelor party, he is e-mailed a list of all the women he has slept with. Strangely, while the list has 101 names, his fiancee is only number 29. He assumes the list is a prank, courtesy of his best friends Zack (Neil Flynn) and Lester (Dash Mihok) - until he meets number 30, Carlotta Valdez, who is the stripper at his bachelor party. After sleeping with Carlotta, he realizes that the list includes all his sexual encounters, past, present and future.

Roderick cancels his upcoming wedding and begins to bed all the people on the list, including a centrefold's leprosy ridden grandmother, a Swallows drive-thru girl, a flight attendant, a reality TV lesbian power couple and a self help guru. Although he makes a connection with some of these women, he is unable to settle down until he has crossed all names off the list. His friends become concerned for his mental well being and convince him to bury the list. He falls for Lester's charming and quirky veterinarian (Leslie Bibb), only to learn that she does not return his feelings. After her untimely death, he digs up the list and continues his mission.

Throughout all this, a female vigilante, nicknamed Death Nell (Winona Ryder), has been taking revenge on men who have committed sexual crimes. Death Nell seduces these men and then uses various techniques to induce a permanent coma, leaving behind a line of feminist poetry spray painted on the wall. Roderick learns that his list was generated by a quantum-mechanical computer called the Oracle, and that the agency in charge of the Oracle are also trying to track Death Nell down.

Roderick's precarious mental state is compromised when he learns that the last name on his list, Gillian de Raisx, is in fact the notorious Death Nell. With twenty more names left on the list, he decides to abandon it altogether and takes up various hobbies to keep him from giving in to temptation. After an accident during a bike ride, he is found by a group of female students from a Catholic college who believe that he has been sent to deflower them. Roderick is unable to resist and catapults himself from number 82 to number 100 in the space of an afternoon.

Knowing that Death Nell is the last person on his list (and that he may not survive a night with her) Roderick tries to change his destiny, first by becoming a shut in, and then by tracking down another Gillian de Raisx in Sydney, Australia. But when he learns that the Agency are close to catching Death Nell, he has a sudden change of heart. Guilt stricken over his treatment of his previous conquests, he decides to face the consequences.

Roderick and Gillian meet in a diner, where they share a meal and conversation. Gillian reveals that she was a Poetry/Chemistry student who married young and was forced to perform degrading sexual favours with her husband, who also physically abused her. After his death, which was inadvertently caused by Gillian, she realised that she could dish out similar punishments to other men who treated women badly. At the end of the conversation, she reveals that she is exhausted from the whole ordeal and unsure if she still has the conviction to continue. Roderick and Gillian agree to take the sedatives together. After spending the night together, they take the pills and fall in to bed; 'The End' is spray painted on the wall behind them.

The epilogue reveals that Roderick and Gillian survived the pills - they married and had a child. Death Nell's comatose victims are revived and a brief scene at the Agency suggests that Roderick and Gillian's union was fated.

Cast

• Simon Baker...Roderick Blank
• Winona Ryder...Gillian De Raisx/Death Nell
• Robert Wisdom...Alpha
• Tanc Sade...Beta
• Patton Oswalt...Fred
• Mindy Cohn...Trixie
• Keram Malicki-Sanchez...Master Bitchslap
• Julie Bowen...Fiona Wormwood
• Neil Flynn...Zack
• Retta...Ethel (as Retta Sirleaf)
• Corinne Reilly...Lizzie
• Cindy Pickett...Roderick's mother
• Winter Ave Zoli...Alexis
• Dash Mihok...Lester
• Jessica Kiper...Carlotta Valdes
• Sophie Monk...Cynthia Rose
• Marshall Bell...Victor Rose III
• Amanda Walsh...Kathleen
• Leslie Bibb...Dr. Miranda Storm
• Zachary Gordon...Barbecue Brat
• Indira Varma...Deven Sovor (uncredited)

Critical reception

The film received generally negative reviews from critics. The review in The New York Times dismissed it as an "unfortunate comedy". Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 23% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 30 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 26 out of 100, based on 10 reviews.

Awards

The film won the Golden Space Needle Award for Best Director at the Seattle Film Festival.

External links

• Sex and Death 101 at the Internet Movie Database
• Sex and Death 101 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Sex and Death 101 at Metacritic
• Sex and Death 101 at Box Office Mojo
• Sex and Death 101 at AllRovi