Movie Review - Come As You Are (2020)

If one is counting, this is the fourth iteration of Asta Philpot's story. Asta Philpot is an American who was born in Miami but now lives in the United Kingdom. He was born with arthrogryposis, which is a defect that results in him not being able to move most of his body, except his head and part of his right hand. He's not paralyzed, meaning he still has sensation throughout his body. He simply can't move most of it himself. He became a force in the world in the early 2000's when he started advocating for prostitution to be legal in the UK. The reason is because he visited a brothel in Spain that catered to men in wheelchairs. He arranged a trip to the brothel and later wanted to bring that experience to his home in the UK. He wanted all disabled men to have that opportunity. In 2007, the BBC did a documentary on Philpot called "For One Night Only" as part of its series, One Life.

Belgian filmmaker, Geoffrey Enthoven adapted that documentary and Philpot's story into a feature film called Hasta la Vista (2011). The film won the People's Choice Award for Best European Film at the European Film Awards in 2012. Dutch filmmaker, Albert Jan van Rees remade that film with Adios Amigos (2016), which also did reasonably well but in the Netherlands. Rees' version was the third iteration in that regard. I can't speak to the way those two prior iterations handled things, but, this fourth iteration by director Richard Wong falls into some unfortunate traps.

Grant Rosenmeyer (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Oliver Beene) stars as Scotty who is the dramatic equivalent to Asta Philpot. Scotty has the same condition as Philpot and he's on a similar quest to travel to a brothel that's not in his country and that caters to men in wheelchairs. He's in his early 20's and he's still a virgin. This is because he's practically paralyzed and has been dependent on his mother for his whole life to do everything for him, including feed and bathe him. Even in his 20's, he can't feed or bathe himself without his mother's help to do it for him. This is obviously an issue because he wants to have sex. He dreams of being with a beautiful woman and his penis does work, so he could, if he had the help. He simply doesn't want that help being from his mother.

His increasing horny feelings and sexual frustration cause him to behave in very rude and mean ways. He's particularly so to the people at the nursing facility where he goes regularly, if not daily for physical therapy and friendship. In fact, he's been having fantasies about one of the pretty physical therapists there. He's aggressive against any guy who gets her as a physical therapist over him and his leering at her, as well as other behavior could be deemed as sexual harassment. To address this problem, he finds a website online that advertises a brothel in Montréal that caters to men in wheelchairs and will help him lose his virginity. Scotty presumably lives in or near Chicago. He has to figure out a way to get there without his mother finding out.

Hayden Szeto (Truth or Dare and The Edge of Seventeen) co-stars as Matt, an athlete who is probably a little younger than Scotty. He seems like he's college-age or is in fact in college, so maybe between 19 and 21. Because he's in good shape and has muscles, having trained to be a boxer, Scotty calls him "biceps." He's in a wheelchair, but he wasn't born that way like Scotty. It's not clear how Matt got into a wheelchair, which is one of the divergences from Enthoven's film. Actually, it's not a divergence. Why Matt is in the wheelchair is the same here as it was in Enthoven's film, but, Matt never verbalizes what caused him to be in the wheelchair.

This is probably to create a bit of a surprise at the end. Yet, if you're familiar with Enthoven's film or read about it, then that ending won't be much of a surprise. There are clues within this film that foreshadow that ending, but it's never truly explained. Therefore, when that ending happens, it's more head-scratching than the emotional gut-punch that it perhaps is supposed to be. I wasn't really moved by what happened. I simply was left to ask why it happened, but the film provides no answer.

Ravi Patel (Master of None and Grandfathered) also co-stars as Mo, a man who is probably the same ethnicity or has the same heritage as Patel in real life, which is having descended from people from India. However, Mo is visually impaired. He's not totally blind, but he is highly visually impaired. He's presumably the eldest of the other two guys. He says he's 35, which means he's at least 10 years older than either Scotty or Matt. When Scotty comes up with the idea to go to the brothel, he asks Mo to accompany because the van he wants to rent can only fit two wheelchairs and he needs a third guy if he's going to afford the whole thing.

Like Matt though, the film never delves deep into Mo's life. Unlike Matt, we don't even meet the family of Mo. He's a virgin who lives with his mother, yet it's unclear if that's due to his disability or due to cultural reasons. He's literally just a placeholder. Wong's film doesn't really care about Mo's backstory. He seems mostly there for comedic purposes and what humor can be derived from having a blind man on a road trip.

Gabourey Sidibe (Empire and American Horror Story) plays Sam, the nurse who drives the van that takes the three disabled guys to the brothel. She also is there to assist them along the way. She's good at putting Scotty in check, especially when he starts acting like a jerk. She also is a nurse that got into trouble and wants to redeem herself. Yet, the film has her develop feelings and even engage in a relationship with one of the guys, which would seem improper for a medical professional to become intimate with one of her patients.

It also goes to one of the flaws in this film's messaging. It's one of those unfortunate traps mentioned earlier. During the credits of this film, there is documentary footage of an interview that Asta Philpot did for The Young Turks with host Cenk Uygur. In that interview, Philpot says, "I don't see how someone who hasn't even been in that arena can come up to me and say, 'Well why don't you just go out and get your own girlfriend, man?'" Philpot was talking about the judgment that people make against prostitution, not considering the difficulties people in wheelchairs have. However, that judgment is the exact conclusion of this film.

One of the guys ends up falling in love with Sam, the nurse. Yes, the whole film is about the guys going to this brothel, but, by the end, Scotty admits that it was a rather empty experience and that he wants more, presumably more than just sex. Now, this is a fine and perfectly reasonable conclusion for him or any person to make. It's reasonable because prostitution is mostly illegal and a disabled person shouldn't need to take a costly trip across the country or even out of the country just to have sex or have to do so illegally or in secret. Finding a girlfriend or companion in his own community without the need of paying that person professionally makes the most sense. Yet, it just seems to fly in the face of what Philpot, not only says himself in the credits, but what the goal of his advocacy was. Yet, the Uygur interview was 10 years ago. I feel like if he were interviewed now, he would be working on a phone app, akin to Grindr, for disabled men.

That aside, this film is basically a sex comedy in the vein of Porky's (1981) or American Pie (1999). Unfortunately, it's not as fun or raunchy as those aforementioned films. Rosenmeyer gets some okay one-liners. There's a quasi-action scene in the middle. Once the guys get to the brothel, it ends up being very lame and not titillating at all. Yes, Matt is mocked for his muscles, but, we never see his muscles or him shirtless at all. For all the talk about sex and boobs, there's no skin shown here at all. The Oscar-nominated film The Sessions (2012) is more provocative than this film.

Lastly, there are some issues with representation that are worth mentioning. Philpot is all about advocating for disabled men to have sex. It would be interesting to hear some advocacy for disabled women. I know the idea for this film originated in the early 2000's before the Me Too Movement and the Time's Up Movement, but, for this film to be the fourth iteration and no one considers the experience of disabled women is a bit of a shame. Another shame is that a film about disabled men doesn't actually star any disabled men. There is a disabled woman who appears in this film, but none of the stars of this film are disabled, which is becoming increasingly sad, given the past year has seen the rise of disabled actors with Tony winner Ali Stroker being a woman in a wheelchair on Broadway, as well as Zack Gottasgen on stage at the Oscars, representing his film The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019).

Not rated but contains sexual situations and langauge.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 46 mins.

Available on VOD.