Staff Pick: Stoner Movies 2020

Image from Score (1974)

25 September 2020 ∙ Originally published in Dig Boston

(Below is an excerpt written by me from a larger staff piece)

Score
Directed by Radley Metzger.
US/Yugoslavia, 1974, 91 minutes.

Somewhere in a fantastical European riviera is the city of Leisure, where liberated couple Jack and Elvira’s married bliss includes betting on which one can seduce the most people. The squarer, the straighter, the better, and innocent Betsy and Eddie are looking perfect for a night of groovy culture shocks. It’s not as simple as wife-swapping; oh no, you don’t give a young couple poppers and nun and cowboy outfits without any intention of queer revelry: If Elvira can’t bed Betsy by midnight, then Eddie becomes fair game for Jack. 

Aside from some truly iconic ’70s reefer smokin’, this golden age softcore isn’t much concerned with the inhalable ambrosia, but it certainly won’t get in the way of Metzger’s sex-utopian vision of shag carpeted swinging. Truth be told, this intoxicated writer fell for its “sex comedy” genre tag and was surprised—but not disappointed—when, after 45 minutes of Samantha Jones jokes, Score became a remarkably staged, gleefully performed, and gender-damning porno of considerable artfulness. Come for the jokes, stay for the cum (and the cinematography). And the knowledge that the off-Broadway play on which it is based (!) starred a young Sylvester Stallone (!!) as a telephone repairman (!!!)? That’s just the icing on the ******. —Juan A. Ramirez