Dreams of Stardom (Hollywood SI)

Paul Tanner was an average guy or at least he liked to think so. He could've been great had his theater career bloomed. Unfortunately, his vocal cords gave out on him at the wrong time. Now he can't sing for any prolonged period or it would irritate his throat, resulting in serious coughs.

But Paul had come to terms with his career a long time ago. Ten years to be precise. It was in 1988 that he had to leave it behind to complete his degrees in music and education. Thankfully, his parents had saved enough money to support his college.

"Paul, your student's movie will begin soon." A female voice jolted Paul from his reminiscing of the good old Broadway days. He shook his head of melancholy and walked towards his living room.

Today was the premiere of his, currently favorite student, Troy's first film.

Paul was in awe of the inherent talent displayed by the young child he was tutoring in music. It didn't take Troy long to get the hang of most tunes he was taught, whether vocal or through guitar. Although Paul wasn't the best at playing guitar himself, he knew enough to guide another person.

If his talent in singing was carried over even a little in the acting department, Paul was sure he would witness a very good performance today from Troy.

He caught sight of the woman sitting on the couch and smiled at her. He bent down and pecked her on the mouth lightly. What he wasn't expecting was for the woman to grab his hand, pull him down on the couch, and then sit on his lap, straddling him.

Paul let out a little startled yelp as the woman's lips latched onto his and a warm tongue entered his mouth.

"Em!" Paul separated after a few minutes of the make-out session, "Rosie could walk in any minute. I don't want her witnessing anything R-rated, she's 5."

Emily rolled her eyes good-naturedly, "For a former actor you are way too stuck up. Don't worry, I put her to sleep myself. She won't be waking anytime soon."

"You better hope so," Paul warned.

"I promise! Now tell me what this movie is about," Em deflected the topic.

"I didn't ask Troy about the movie, because the title is [Sex Education] and that is hardly a topic to talk about with a nine-year-old without coming across as a predator," Paul answered drily.

"Please don't tell me it's about a child explaining to adults about sex. That would get embarrassing real soon." Em made a pained expression thinking of the scenario.

"It's a feature film, not a documentary. And his father, who is the writer and director of the film, has made a few good movies. Do you remember that movie, [The Fabulous Baker Boys]? It had Jeff Bridges and Michelle Pfeiffer. Ring any bells?" Paul asked.

"Oh yeah, now I remember. Wait, that dude starred his own son in a film about sex?" Em asked, baffled.

Paul laughed out loud, "Believe me, I had a similar reaction when I heard about it the first time, and boy, was Troy mad at me. From what I could glean, he cares about his parents a lot and he was so excited about his film. His only complaint was that he won't be able to see it anytime soon. So either he doesn't realize the topic of the film or he is so used to it that it doesn't bother him too much."

"Wow," Em breathed out audibly, "That's something."

"Every time I think about it, I make a promise to myself that I won't allow my darling Rosie to work in such a film, ever. If Melanie were here, she would definitely kill me if that were to happen." Paul shivered unconsciously remembering his first wife and Rosie's mother.

"I wish I could meet her," Em said with a smile.

"Me too," Paul said back with a reminiscent smile of his own.

Just then the commercial that was playing on the screen ended and the movie started.

Paul perked up, "Oh it's begun. Now be quiet and let me enjoy the movie."

(Break)

The iconic HBO logo appears on the screen, followed by the opening credits. Soon, the movie begins with a scene of a small kid, Mark, rushing into his classroom, almost late for the class due to his parents getting some early morning action that is shown through flashbacks as he explains to his teacher that he was late because his parents were fighting.

A fight that was very physical and very naked.

The kid then started crying but the teacher, Mrs. Vogel, consoled him with a hug. As soon as she hugged him, the camera zoomed onto Mark's face to show him sporting a victorious smirk of fooling his teacher successfully.

The story then continues as it introduces different characters at different points in time. One important character is Mark's older sister Jenny who is around 18-19 and in her first year of college. She has a bold devil-may-care attitude and she hates her parents because of their busy life and because they left her in L.A. while they went on to live in London.

They took Mark with him because he was too young, while she stayed with her Aunt's family and she has not forgiven them. While she has no resentment towards Mark, she is annoyed by him because of their age difference.

As the story progresses, anyone can guess that Jenny has a bad history with Dylan, who is the second male lead. Initially, Dylan came across as more of a comic relief who would try to make some sexual innuendo, only for it to backfire on him or for him to get embarrassed. All the characters and their quirks are explained by Mark as the camera zooms onto him and he would explain the characters or his witty observations about sex, like a documentary.

As the movie progresses, we see some incidents that molded Mark's life. The story is told in a non-linear format, so there is no singular timeframe to follow. But most of the scenes bring forth a comic element.

Paul and Em couldn't help but laugh every few minutes because of the number of jokes and the freshness of the story.

Throughout the film, Mark would come on screen and explain what he learned about sex from a particular incident, like a video diary of sorts. For example, the incident where Mark says that ladies get pregnant when men pee in the female butt. After that scene, Mark learned about sex as his teacher called his mother and complained. His parents were forced to tell him about real sex without making up ridiculous excuses like they obviously did the last time.

In another incident, he finds a condom in his sister's room and thinks it is a super big balloon for their mother's birthday party so he brings it out and blows on it, then wears it on his hand (because it was faulty and wouldn't inflate) and paraded around in the party, showing it to all the guests.

The adults laughed, while Mark's parents and Jenny were embarrassed. That day he got to know what a condom is and why it is used.

From these snippets, we can see how Mark learned about different aspects of sex, from masturbating, when he walked in on his sister to pubic hair and erection, when he had a shower with Dylan. (The scene was cut midway without showing the assault scene.)

He found out about different sexualities when Dylan was receiving a blowjob from a male friend of his and Mark woke up in the middle of his designated sleep. (Dylan was babysitting Mark and had called his boyfriend over.) Dylan told him he liked boys as well, making him bisexual. Then he went on to explain about gays and lesbians as well.

He found out about STDs when his uncle (father's brother) died in the UK due to AIDS-related complications and the parents had to fly over. He asked Jenny about the disease and asked if they would also die of the said disease like their uncle. Jenny tried to explain as much as she could about the possibility of not getting a disease simply by touching or eating together, but Mark wanted to know how it spread.

Jenny relented at the end and told him it spread if you slept with someone else. At this point, Mark had gathered enough knowledge of sex that he understood. He conveys the same in his video diary later on.

Then the shower scene is revisited and we finally know where Mark's parents are. His sister had a huge fight with their parents and stormed out on the day of their departure, saying she hated them. She was already living on her college campus and swore to them she wouldn't visit them any longer.

Later on, she felt bad and remembered a time when Mark was little and cute and asked her to never leave him alone. She felt bad and decided to return to check up on her brother only to find Mark, naked in the shower with Dylan, in the middle of an attempted assault. She picked up a toilet plunger and hit Dylan over the head again and again until he stayed down and had some blood leaking from his temple.

Then she hugged her brother and cried heartily.

That gut-wrenching scene was made worse when in a flashback it is shown that Dylan had raped Jenny a year before this whole incident and had clicked a few photos of her to buy her silence. Then Dylan had done so repeatedly, many times over the following year. That is until Jenny had gone to college.

She had no idea that Dylan was bisexual or she wouldn't have left Mark alone with him. In her defense, she was terrified for her own safety.

They called the police and in the meanwhile, Paul could see that Emily had a hard time controlling herself as she cried silently over the sudden tonal shift of the movie. Only the hug from Paul stopped her from bawling out loud enough to wake Rosie. With great effort, they continued watching the movie.

Paul knew Emily was a crier, but this was too much. She had never cried so much or so freely in front of him. Ever. Something was not right about the situation.

In the next scene of [Sex-ed], Mark explained how there was a legal age for having sex, and anything before that whether consensual or not is illegal. He also explained how non-consensual sex leads to jail time just like Dylan and even made a crude joke about how the behinds of sex offenders are used in prison. 

Then the movie comes back to the present where Mark is having a meeting with a therapist but his facial expression is totally blank as if he is numb to the world.

His eyes convey the truly hollow look that the movie is trying to portray. The therapist asks the kid a slew of questions but he remains silent. Then the therapist passes Mark a video recorder asking him to record anything he thinks that would shed light on his thoughts about the incident, his family life, or any thoughts of the past he wants to talk about.

In the very last scene, Mark is talking to the audience, "And that's how I got stuck talking to you all about sex." Revealing that all this time Mark was actually talking to the recorder for his therapist telling them his story.

"I hope one day, I can go back to how things were. Mummy and Daddy loved me, Jenny didn't hate me and everything was okay." Then he frowned a little in contemplation, "Till then, see ya."

With that, closing credits fell and Emily couldn't stop a fresh wave of tears from falling down her cheeks as her boyfriend hugged her from her side wiping his own tears meanwhile. Emily put his head on Paul's shoulder and after wiping her tears one more time said, "It felt so real."

"It's okay babe. The movie is over now," Paul reassured her. He knew of Emily's past and the type of hardships she had to endure growing up, from her own scumbag father nonetheless. (Thank goodness the man is dead!) Had Paul known the true extent of the story of the film, he would have preferred avoiding it altogether.

"Yeah it is, isn't it?" Emily asked rhetorically before noting, "Your student is very good at acting." 

Paul grinned at that sudden change in subject, "That he is. At this point, I'm thinking, is there something he can't do?" He chuckled at his own question silently.

"What else is he good at?" Emily didn't hide the curiosity in her tone.

"His voice is amazing, he can play the guitar as if he has been practicing for a decade and he is at the top of his class academically with perfect scores." Paul counted out, "The only thing he is not good at is P.E. and from what I have gathered, it's because he is not very interested in a physical group activity."

"Not to mention, he will become hot as hell one day," She joked.

Paul couldn't agree more. It was quite easy to tell that Troy would become one good-looking dude in the future.

"I just hope he doesn't get blinded by the limelight," Paul muttered as he hugged Emily once more. "So many of these child actors do."

Emily hummed noncommittally before looking up at her boyfriend, "Enough talk about your student. I wanna have some real [Sex Education]. With live demonstration. Now."

Paul grinned, "I'll be happy to provide you that." With that, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to their bedroom, bridal style, all the way kissing her passionately.

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AN: I still can't believe that we crossed 165k views and 1.1k collections in such a small time. It's all thanks to you guys.