EIFF: A Complete History of My Sexual Failures - Review by Guest Contributor Peter Gerard

Director: Chris Waitt
Running Time: 89 mins
Sat 21 Jun, 20:15
Cameo 1

Miraculously edited from the mess that is Chris Waitt's life, this entertaining documentary follows Waitt on an unusual path of discovery. He sets out to ask all of his ex-girlfriends why they've dumped him. Despite the majority of them refusing to participate, Waitt manages to build a meandering story looking at his doubts about women and himself. Painfully honest, he essentially turns Michael Moore's antagonising tactics on himself. Shot with handheld video cameras, the visuals are engaging thanks to Waitt's notebooks, photo-scraps, and his collection of toys and broken hi-fis that fill the screen. At times all the chaos of his life and decisions seem too perfectly funny to be real and one begins to wonder if some of the scenes and characters are made up. But this is the real Waitt, warts and a hell of a lot more, and it's amazing to see the encounters he manages to find through his shameless persistence.Though at fist it seems obvious why his relationships have ended in failure, the film takes some surprising turns and in the end somehow manages to actually weave in some touching moments. Waitt's inability to focus is bizarrely what prevents the film from becoming just another one of his failures.