Sex Tape
SEXテープ
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A married couple film a three-hour sex tape to revive things and sync it to every iPad they have given away.
Jay and Annie Hargrove used to have sex at every opportunity. Two children later, they rarely do. With the children at Annie's mother's for the night, they try role play and unusual corners of the house, and nothing works. Annie suggests they film themselves. On Jay's tablet they record themselves working through every position in The Joy of Sex.
Annie asks Jay to delete the video. Instead an app syncs it to the old iPads Jay has given away as presents. Unable to get it out of the cloud, they set out to recover every tablet. Deleting the copy on Annie's mother's is easy. Their close friends Robby and Tess learn why they have come and join the hunt. The hardest is at the house of Hank Rosenbaum, who may soon be Annie's boss. While Annie keeps him talking, on the pretext of collecting for charity, and tries cocaine for the first time, Jay searches the house and fights Hank's German shepherd. In the end it is Robby and Tess who get that tablet back.
Then Robby and Tess's son, Howard, threatens to upload the video to YouPorn unless they pay him 25,000 dollars. Unable to raise the money, they break into YouPorn's headquarters to destroy its servers. An alarm sounds, and the owner, his guards and his wife confront them; the owner's wife persuades him to take pity on them, and he lets them go for 15,000 dollars in damages. As he deletes the video, he tells them they could simply have emailed a request. Howard, whose only friend is their son, Clive, hands over the last copy on a USB stick in return for being allowed to spend time with him. Jay and Annie watch the tape once themselves. Then they smash the stick with a hammer, put it through the blender, burn it and bury what is left.
Starring
Cameron Diazas Annie Hargrove
A mother of two who wants her marriage to feel the way it used to, and suggests they film themselves.
Annie Hargrove’s story
Annie writes a popular blog about family life, and Hank, who runs a children's brand, wants her to be its face. She misses the years when she and Jay made love everywhere. With the children at her mother's, their night goes nowhere, so she suggests they film themselves working through every position in The Joy of Sex. When the video syncs to the tablets Jay has given away, she keeps Hank talking at his house on the pretext of a charity collection and tries cocaine for the first time, though Robby and Tess get the tablet back. When Howard threatens to upload the video, she breaks into the porn site's headquarters with Jay, and the owner's wife persuades him to let them go. With the last copy in hand, she and Jay watch it once, then destroy it.
Jason Segelas Jay Hargrove
Annie's husband, whose tablet syncs the video to every old iPad he has given away.
Jay Hargrove’s story
Jay has a habit of giving his old tablets away. He and Annie once had sex at every opportunity; two children later, they rarely do. On their night alone he cannot get an erection, and at Annie's suggestion they film themselves on his new tablet. She asks him to delete it; instead an app syncs it to every tablet he has given away. He goes house to house to recover them, searches Hank's house while Annie distracts him, and fights his German shepherd. When their friends' son, Howard, demands 25,000 dollars, he and Annie break into the porn site's headquarters, are caught and are let go for 15,000 dollars in damages. Howard hands over the last copy in return for time with their son, Clive. Jay and Annie watch it once, then smash, blend, burn and bury it.
Rob Corddryas Robby Thompson
Jay and Annie's close friend, who joins the hunt for the tablets with his wife, Tess.
Ellie Kemperas Tess Thompson
Robby's wife, who helps recover the hardest tablet of all, from the house of Annie's likely new boss.
Rob Loweas Hank Rosenbaum
The man who may soon be Annie's boss, whose house holds one of the tablets.
Why it matters
Sex Tape takes a real fear of the cloud age, that something private can be copied everywhere at once, and plays it as farce. Beneath the chase is a familiar marriage: two people who once wanted each other constantly and now cannot find the time, or the nerve. The film is kind to that problem. It suggests that what the couple lack is not love but attention, and its embarrassing, physical answer is to set them working together again. It is less serious about the problem its plot raises. For many people the leak of an intimate video is a lasting harm; here a teenager's blackmail is part of the fun, and the upload is undone with a remark that an email would have been enough. In Japan its planned 2014 release was cancelled, and it reached cinemas only in 2015. The question it leaves is modest and real: what a long marriage needs to stay a place of play.