User:Wyndham Paul Wise/Sweet Substitute (Film)

Sweet Substitute is a 1964 Canadian feature from Vancouver filmmaker Larry Kent.

Plot
This quintessential independent feature from the 1960s is the second feature from Vancouver director Larry Kent. Like all his films, Sweet Substitute is improvisational but based on a structured outline. The film tells the tale of a randy college bound student (Robert Howay) who just wants to have sex. His girlfriend Kathy (Angela Gann) wants marriage first, so he searches for women who are more willing. When one (Carol Pastinsky) becomes pregnant, he makes a cowardly return to Kathy and the safer confines of middle-class respectability.

Importance
Larry Kent’s second feature, which was financed by the receipts from his controversial first film, The Bitter Ash (1963), repeated the semi-improvised techniques of that film, and explored the same adolescent milieu and attitudes. Though the dialogue is often pretentious and clichéd, the film as a whole has a graphic power and credibility that transcends this limitation. Though most Canadian critics were harsh, it was well received abroad, especially in the U.S. (under the title Caressed), and was considerable commercial success. It received a Special Award at the Canadian Film Awards, special mention at the Montreal International Film Festival, and was also selected for the London and New York City film festivals.