Feeling Randy *** (2024, Reid Miller, Jonathan Silverman, Marguerite Moreau) – Classic Movie Review 13,357

Dean Lent’s 2024 comedy drama film Feeling Randy stars Reid Miller as California teenage virgin Randy who travels with his three high school buddies to the Kitty Ranch Brothel in Arizona in the late 1970s, but finds himself undecided about his sexuality.

Writer/ director Dean Lent’s 2024 comedy drama film Feeling Randy stars Reid Miller as California teenage virgin Randy who travels with his three high school buddies to the Kitty Ranch Brothel in Arizona in the late 1970s, but finds himself undecided about his sexual identity.

Randy Parker (Reid Miller) lives at home with his ghastly parents (Jonathan Silverman, Marguerite Moreau) and awful older sister Anne (Courtney Danforth), is struggling in the family turmoil, struggling with his studies in high school and, worse still, is strugglingly with his virginity, with his hormones raging and his ideas totally undefined.

His three best buddies are just dim and useless good-time boys and not really friends at all, certainly no help in a life crisis. They think about and talk about ‘pussy’ all the time so Randy is convinced he should think about it too, though he has briefly noticed that his buddy Sampson (Tyler Lawrence Gray) is hot. The four buddies decide to do something about it, and make a road trip from San Francisco to an infamous brothel in Nevada called Kitty’s where they can find not only pussy, but also boobs.

Randy’s adventure at the Kitty Ranch lasts for 20 minutes before he goes back to the car, where his friends are telling lies about the thrills they had. Randy has told the prostitute Trixie (Farah Shea) that it’s his first time having sex and she’s very kind and considerate. However, Randy only gets excited when he thinks about his buddy Sampson. Somehow, Trixie notices or intuits, and asks “are you sure you like girls?”

Luckily, Randy meets a couple of really weird people who might help: Luke (Blaine Kern III), who introduces him to the pleasures of a hot tub and drugs, and Melissa (Kerrice Brooks), who introduces him – briefly — to girls.

The likeable 2024 American teen coming of age comedy drama film Feeling Randy is light-weight, light-hearted, lightly amusing, but, after a while it takes hold, gets a grip and gets there. Unlike most of the characters in the movie, it has something on its mind, though it disguises it carefully under the comedy capers.

Reid Miller is excellent as the ‘little dude’, stirring up memories of Bud Cort in Harold and Maude, ideally cast and handling it with appeal and some style and grace. Marguerite Moreau and Jonathan Silverman are funny as the parents from hell, the mother a woman on the verge and the father way over the verge. Tyler Lawrence Gray fits the bill as hot buddy as Sampson. and Oliver Hibbs Wyman is good as best buddy Marc.

Somehow, in a very crowded field, Feeling Randy manages, like its hero, to be attractively different, small but perfectly formed. Weirdly, despite all the broad humour and events on show, the film is quite clever, crafty and cunning, and even oddly subtle. It goes down and under the defences, with surprises as well as wit and intelligence in the screenplay, based on a true story.

And, yes, there’s a great soundtrack, it’s the days of disco!

The only real trouble is that is runs only 81 minutes.

Feeling Randy had a limited cinema release in the US by Breaking Glass Pictures on 1 November 2024, followed by a digital release on 5 November.

The cast

The cast are Reid Miller as Randy Parker, Jonathan Silverman as Frank Parker, Marguerite Moreau, Tyler Lawrence Gray as Sampson, Blaine Kern III as Luke, Kerrice Brooks, Shane Almagor, Oliver Hibbs Wyman as Mark, Chris Mulkey, Courtney Danforth as Anne, and Richard Riehle.

Feeling Randy is directed by Dean Lent, runs 81 minutes, is made by Semblance Productions, is released by Breaking Glass Pictures, and is written by Dean Lent.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,357

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