My Tutor (1983)

My Tutor starts with an aerobics class gyrating their hips to the strains of some outdated disco, leading the viewer to believe that it's another trashy sex comedy. But the movie--about Bobby (Matt Lattanzi), a young man whose father hires an attractive French tutor so that he can get into Yale--soon splits in two: part of it follows the comically desperate attempts of the hero's friend (played by the ever-quirky Crispin Glover, from River's Edge and the Back to the Future movies) to get laid; part of it follows the developing relationship of Bobby and Terry (Caren Kaye), the tutor, as they become lovers. The getting-laid story line is goofy and filled with gratuitous breasts, but the story of Bobby and Terry is surprisingly tender and, in its way, realistic. Terry comes across as intelligent and independent, she controls the progress of the relationship, and their sex is more affectionate and comfortable than the dehumanizing 9 1/2 Weeks hijinks one might expect. My Tutor isn't anything profound or even particularly well made, but--unlike most softcore features--it isn't leering or misogynist either. By the end, it's downright sweet and sincere. Also featuring cameos by B-movie starlets Kitten Natividad and Jewel Shepard. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

"You're my tutor, WHOO; teach me anything you want me to learn."

When watching "My Tutor", I think U2 stated it best "Sometimes you can't make it on your own." In other words, watch this movie with a friend, so you can enjoy the idiotic, yet simplistic storyline of this cult 80s classic and laugh together. Or if you lose conscious from how stupid, unbelievable, vapid and silly most the movie is and at least there is another person with you who can call for help.

Before I go any further, this movie is such a guilty pleasure for me and I love it, I'm man enough to admit it.

As for the movie itself, I will do my best to explain, starting with the plot. Bobby (Matt Lattanzi) has just graduated from high school, sort of. Bobby has flunked his French class which is the catalysts to the amazing plot of this prolific film. Since Bobby has failed French he will not be permitted into Yale. This notion doesn't sit well with Bobby's father, so daddy pulls some strings, since he is a Yale alumni, and a compromise is made: if Bobby can pass a French exam of 85% or higher, he can go to Yale in the fall.

Consequently Bobby only has the summer to prepare for this test, so daddy gets him a private tutor. Now to make matters even more exciting, Bobby's private tutor is a sexy blonde, 29 years of age named Terry (Caren Kaye). I don't know about you, but Bobby should be thinking really hard about buying his dad a nice father's day gift. The quagmire now is can Terry bring up Bobby's French skills so he can score at least an 85%?

This is the part I never saw coming, but Terry and Bobby become involved intimately and romantically. This relationship develops despite the fact that Terry is chic and a world traveled woman, and Bobby is a naïve and inexperienced young man. It appears that this attraction develops out of no where, at least on Terry's end. A great deal of things are thrown at this unorthodox couple; the difference in age, the grapple of "education or love making", Bobby's father and Terry's ex-boyfriend. Yet this is one summer either one of them will forget anytime soon, but will their love last?

There is also a funny, yet humdrum subplot with two of Bobby's friends. They spend the better half of the movie trying to get Bobby and themselves laid in some of the most precarious and droll situations. This does produce some laughs and plenty of gratuitous nudity. One of Bobby's friends is played by no other than Crispin Glover A.K.A George McFly from "Back to the Future". Who in many ways appears deranged throughout the entire film, a definite plus.

I also have to say that Bobby was somewhat androgynous in this movie. He was really super sensitive and many times spoke in a high pitch, whiney voice. To listen to Bobby complain or protest against Terry tutoring him in French was actually really hilarious and vexing simultaneously. I really found it interesting that Terry was into Bobby, it screams more about the demons in her past than any skeletons that might be in Bobby's closet.

It was very amusing that Bobby's home in many ways mirrored a college campus. It appears that his home goes on for miles and miles. Consequently, Bobby rides a motor scooter that would fit the profile of Peter Parker more than a rich teenager from California. Bobby's rich father couldn't buy him a car, rather a motor scooter. Perhaps daddy is in the oil business and not giving Bobby car is adding to the family's wealth. Just a side note, there is a scene with Bobby and scooter that I found so comical I had to turn the DVD off and walk away from the television for ten minutes.

I am totally unconvinced that Bobby's father, being Yale alumni and three steps below God in the financial department couldn't pull more strings to get Bobby into Yale. Why would an elective high school course like French hold so much merit on whether or not student should get into Yale? I guess with respect to plot, a French tutor is much sexier than a tutor in Botany.

There are several "MacGuffins" (events/things/characters basically unimportant to the story, yet are present) in "My Tutor". For instance, Bobby's mother being an airhead, Terry swims in the nude at night, the focus on Bobby's maid and gardener only speaking Spanish and Terry always exercising in a women's aerobic class that is an equation of Richard Simmons VHS multiplied by Jane Fonda Beta tape. Oh as for the bubble gum pop theme song, "You're my tutor, WHOO; teach me anything you want me to learn." If there is anyone out there that knows where I can find this song, I am not sure what your reward will be, but it will be worth it.

"My Tutor" was made in 1983, which was the beginning of a very memorable decade and this movie really showcases music, fashion, the hair and the carefree, yet somber attitude of the spirits living in the era. The day might come when we as a modern society are erased from the planet due to war, famine, global warming, political and/or religious genocide or yetis that will eat all people. Under the assumption this does transpire and some odd race of aliens visit Earth years in the future or a mutation of humans evolve on Earth millions of years from now. Both of these groups' sole purposes might want to understand the prior human race that inhabited the planet many, many moons ago. Giving these conditions, the DVD of "My Tutor" can and will provide a lucid picture and/or a time capsule of history in the 1980s. June 19, 2007

Rare Laserdiscs - dvds Movies Collector.

My Tutor is a great Movie of The 80s,A Must See!! I have it on dvd And I enjoyed watchin' it :) April 17, 2006

ok

old movie, remembered from my teen years, good quality, only movie in which Caren Kaye appeared nude or clothed. August 28, 2005

Good Idea, Bad Execution

Partway through watching My Tutor on DVD, I remembered I'd seen it in the theater when it first came out. Back then I had the same reaction I do today: this movie could have been a whole lot better than it is.

Bobby Chrystal (Matt Lattanzi) has failed his high school senior year French finals. This means he won't be able to get into Yale, a situation intolerable to his overbearing Yaley dad (Kevin McCarthy, best known for playing the main character in the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers). Dad hires beautiful blond Terry Green (Caren Kaye) to be Bobby's summer live-in French tutor. If Bobby can pass a makeup French test at school, all past educational shortcomings will be forgiven and the halls of Yale pre-law beckon. However, Bobby learns a whole lot more from Terry than French as she becomes his first lover.

That bare description of plot sounds like it could make a sweet romantic comedy. And it could - it just doesn't. To start with there's the sub-plot of Bobby's friend Billy (Clark Brandon) and his repeated, unsuccessful efforts to get his younger brother (Crispin Glover) and Bobby laid, including a trip to the most dysfunctional brothel on God's green earth, hooking them up with a trashy waitress with a biker boyfriend, etc. These episodes simply aren't funny. Bobby, the main character we should like, is a whiny punk. The acting by all concerned is frankly not that great. There's not much in the way of chemistry between Lattanzi and Kaye, especially early-on. Rather than real people who find each other attractive, they come across like beautiful actors reading their lines - badly. (They do get better as the movie progresses.) The way the two characters hook up - not to give away too much of the scintillating plot - is unbelievable. We don't see the relationship develop through time, from attraction to liking to, eventually, sex. Toward the end of the movie, after Bobby's treated Terry quite decently during the relationship, it's back to acting like a whiny punk when it becomes obvious they're not going to last. You just want to slap this guy upside the head.

There are a few good things in My Tutor. In-between the unrealistic start of the relationship and Bobby acting like a baby toward the end, there's some genuinely sweet stuff as Bobby and Terry pillow talk in bed. It's nice. And Billy's comeback to a girl at a party who refuses to dance with him is one of the funniest things I've ever heard in any film. I really want to like this movie for the few things it does right; unfortunately they're not enough to counterbalance the many things it does wrong.

In my mind I contrast My Tutor to Coach, the 1978 Cathy Lee Crosby/Michael Biehn movie also dealing with a 30-ish woman in a sexual relationship with a high school student. Coach doesn't have quite the production values of My Tutor, it's not as slick and glossy, and its sub-plot of the upcoming "big game" basketball championship is frankly ridiculous, but at heart it's a much more successful film. Because (a) the acting is better - come on, we're talking Cathy Lee Crosby and Michael Biehn here, (b) the relationship seems much more real, not to mention healthy. The characters have great on-screen chemistry, it's believable these two people like each other, as well as find each other attractive. They spend time getting to know each other over numerous dates, talking for hours on end, before nature finally takes its course. You know, all the things My Tutor doesn't do.

The "extras" on this DVD are really lame. Of special note, the "Animated Bios" consist of still pictures of three of the cast (Kaye, Lattanzi, McCarthy) and sketchy bio text "animated" in that it scrolls up the screen. The one neat thing here is the "Naughty Bits Guide," a separate chapter menu for all the movie's "naughty bits," i.e. those featuring nudity/sex. This is such an inventive and fun idea I'm almost tempted to give My Tutor one more star just for that. July 9, 2004

Dull but cute

The main reason to watch this flick is if you have a thing for gay male porno star of yesteryear, Tom Steele. The leading guy looks just like him. You see a lot less of this guy, if you catch my drift, but it's cute and watchable in a nostalgia kind of way if you remember seeing it on cable 20 years ago. August 13, 2003

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