Uncle Scoopy's Fun House

How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town

(2016)

How To Plan An Orgy In A Small Town is a Canadian comedy about Cassie Cranston (Jewel Staite), who left her small town after a horrendous night of being slut-shamed and to run away from her famous book writing mother, now has to come back home for her mother's funeral. Now a successful columnist who wrote a famous column that bashed her home town, Cassie is reluctant to return home to say the least. First, she needs the help of a lawyer for finishing up her mother's affair and it turns out to be Adam (Ennis Esmer), the boy who left her high and dry that fateful night, who is now married to Heather (Lauren Lee Smith), the main protagonist behind the slut-shaming. She also catches up with her only friend in town Alice (Katharine Isabelle) who is in the middle of a messy divorce with local real estate agent Bruce (Mark O'Brien). After the funeral, Cassie jokingly makes a comment about having an orgy to Heather, but after receiving the news that Adam is 'shooting blanks', Heather warms to idea of having an orgy and recruits the 'sexually experienced' Cassie to plan the orgy, but not take part, which she reluctantly accepts as this could be good fodder for a book she is struggling to write. Just one problem, Cassie has lied about her sexual experience and is actually a virgin, which she confides in Alice who helps her set up the orgy. The first orgy, featuring Heather, Adam, Alice, Bruce and Chester, who runs walking tours based on Cassie's mother's book, is an absolute disaster. Bruce recruits his co-worker Spencer (James McGowan) for the next orgy, plus a couple on the verge of having a baby and unsurprisingly, the second orgy is a disaster. It then comes out that Cassie is a fraud and the next attempt at the orgy is called off until Heather, desperate to get pregnant, hatches a plan to get it going again at Cassie's next door neighbour/town loser, Seth's (Kristian Bruun) house, excluding Adam. Cassie decides to leave town dejected without having written anything for her overdue book and with no money from her mother's will, but all may not be lost and there may also be a successful orgy, just not in the way they were expecting.

OK comedy with some good laughs, but nothing you haven't seen before, especially if you've seen the similar A Good Old Fashioned Orgy. Basically, the orgy idea doesn't work until everyone's at their lowest ebb and ends in people pairing in either expected or unexpected way. Worth a look if you're into the now 'rare as hen's teeth' sex comedy genre. I wish these orgy movies would have more nudity, seems to be an oversight, but there's some nice brief stuff and probably the most we've ever seen of Jewel and Katharine.)

Zoe Cleland film clip (collages below)