Director Jacob Viness definitely has some interesting directorial skills, displaying the madness about sexual addiction and what chaos it can wreak. Director Viness spotlights a young man named Paul who is hopelessly addicted to sex to where it’s painful, often ending in nights spent with diseased prostitutes and strangers he meets on the streets. He’s anxious to find a way to end his suffering and find a path in life, and through this he uses his religion to help him on his path. But that’s where the narrative goes off the rails, unfortunately.
“Sexual Dysfunction” seems well intentioned from the outset, but doesn’t really know how to handle its concept once it begins establishing its characters and dilemmas. Paul is a sexual addict whose entire illness is based more around his need for acceptance, but he can’t seem to find it. He proclaims it as something of an urge or hole he needs to fill, but he’s also very intent on explaining it as an illness. Has he gone to the doctor or seen a psychiatrist? We’re never actually shown evidence of this. The major problem with the narrative is that director Jacob Viness can never really decide on one theme. Character Paul proclaims in the beginning that sexual addiction is in fact an illness and that he is not within control of his sexual urges.
And yet we’re told mainly by Justin in his actions that he’s a sinner who doesn’t feel like he’s earning his place in heaven. So how can he be a sinner if he’s technically stricken with an illness he can’t control? That’s like being deemed a sinner for having Cancer or Leukemia. Wouldn’t Paul be technically a sinner if he was being hedonistic and satisfying his sexual urges through pleasure and not solely addiction? It’s very contradictory and thematically confusing. Viness never knows how to reconcile the Christian aspects and the painful aspects of sexual addiction, and can never seem to figure out the more psychological aspects of the disease.
Surely there must be some, but director Viness is more hell bent on delving in to the inherent religious guilt of the character, rather than jumping in to the more medical elements. Which is a shame, since “Sexual Dysfunction” can definitely spark some discussion about sexual addiction, and end as a very evocative short film. That said, “Sexual Dysfunction” definitely succeeds in displaying how sexual addiction can be destructive, not only in how we conduct our daily affairs, but in how we orchestrate our relationships with people. Director Jacob Viness is definitely no amateur, I just wish the script had more of an idea of what it wanted to say beyond the religious angles.