RECEPTION

-Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex open to stinging notices and packed theaters. [3]

-Soaring word-of-mouth would make it become one of the top 10 moneymakers of the year, despite critics’ dislike of the film. [3]

-It was universally panned by critics for tasteless material and too few laughs. [3]

-An August 1972 review by Time said that many of the film’s ideas “sound good on paper” but that the “skits wind down rather than take off from the ideas”; the film includes “some broad, funny send-ups of other movies (Fantastic Voyage, La notte), and its fair share of memorably wacky lines” but that “overall it is just Woody marking time and being merely a little funnier” [4]

-At a Chicago screening and a film critic even walked out yelling “Yuck!” [3]

-Even Woody’s supporters at the New York Times thought it was clever but not that funny. [3] In his review, Vincent Canby wrote: “Some of the sketches aren’t absolutely great, but each has at least some great moments in it. The problem with good sketches is good endings…It probably reads better than it plays. “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex” is uneven, but if you’re an Allen freak, as I am, it doesn’t make any difference.

-Every Woody Allen Movie website wrote, “Contrasting greatly with Play it Again, Sam (which opened just a few months prior), this movie is pure silliness. I haven’t read the book it’s based on, but it doesn’t seem like Allen is taking any opportunities to satirize the material, or comment on the culture that would make it such a big hit. Ultimately, the book provides nothing more than an excuse for a bunch of sex jokes — some of which are very funny, but none of which are very educational.” [2]

-Dr. David Reuben, the author of the source book ‘Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)’, did not like the film, and in an interview with the L.A. Herald-Examiner, said: “I didn’t enjoy the movie because it impressed me as a sexual tragedy. Every episode in the picture was a chronicle of sexual failure, which was the converse of everything in the book.” [1]

-The writer of the book Dr. David Ruben was offended, but eventually endorsed its humor, good taste and claimed it to be one of the best Woody Allen movie ever made love. [3]

-Dr. June Reinisch, formerly of The Kinsey Institute, said, “I think we learned more from Woody Allen’s film than we did from the book.” [3]

-In 2004, Christopher Null, founder of filmcritic.com, called it a “minor classic and Woody Allen’s most absurd film ever” [4]

-None of this mattered at the box office however, where audiences found Woody’s sex manual utterly irresistible. [3]

-Everything You Wanted to Now About Sex has a 88% Rotten Tomatoes rating as of 2021.