Film

My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument

Name: My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Released: 1996
Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Devos, Emmanuel Salinger, Marianne Denicourt, Thibault de Montalembert

Drama

Serge Gainsbourg's best student made a three-hour comedy about a Parisian intellectual paralyzed by romantic and professional indecision. It's funny and exasperating in equal measure—a portrait of someone brilliant enough to see every option, too clever to choose one. For anyone who's ever talked themselves out of happiness.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy talky, restless characters who argue about love and ideas for long stretches, and you don't mind a messy, digressive romance that stays with its anxious hero.

Skip it if you want a tight, plot-driven romance, since this one wanders through long conversations and side episodes, and its hero's indecision can feel more tiring than charming.

What it asks of you: Three hours at a leisurely, conversational pace, with scenes that sprawl into talk and few concessions to brisk storytelling, so it wants your full attention rather than background company.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Before Sunrise1995

Two people meeting by chance, talking through a single night about life, love, and philosophy. Linklater trusts conversation completely. It's tender, funny, and captures that specific magic of connecting with a stranger.

But If you need plot momentum or romantic closure, this will feel slow and deliberately unresolved. It's all talk.

La Haine1995

A portrait of three young men navigating Paris's class fractures with humor, rage, and surprising tenderness. Shot in black-and-white, it's visually stunning and morally alive in ways most films never attempt.

But The social anger is uncompromising and the ending refuses comfort. It's a film that demands something from you.

High Fidelity2000

A man obsessed with his own romantic failures and record collection. Funny, self-aware, and genuinely moving about why smart people sabotage themselves. John Cusack's narration carries you through his own blindness.

But It's very much a product of its era and its protagonist is infuriatingly self-absorbed—by design, but that doesn't make it easier to sit with.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie1972

Both films use repetition and conversation as their structure to expose how people hide from themselves. Buñuel does it through surrealism; Renais does it through philosophy. Same engine.

Buñuel's surrealist comedy about six people trying repeatedly and failing to have dinner together. Each interruption reveals something about class, desire, and the absurdity of social ritual. Hilarious and unsettling.

But It's dreamlike and doesn't progress logically. If you're waiting for a payoff or resolution, you'll leave frustrated. Buñuel doesn't deal in those.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie poster

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife1938

Lubitsch on form: a wealthy serial divorcé meets a woman who actually outwits him. Witty, urbane, genuinely romantic beneath the banter. Cooper and Colbert crackle together.

But The pacing is brisk to the point of breathlessness. If you're not locked in from the opening, you'll feel left behind.

Annie Hall1977

Woody Allen at his best: neurotic, funny, genuinely sad about love and art and being alive. It invented the template for smart romantic comedy and hasn't aged badly because it was never really about jokes.

But If you can't tolerate Allen's voice or his particular Manhattan nostalgia, nothing here will change your mind. It's deeply him.

Mulholland Drive2001

A woman arrives in LA with amnesia. What follows is a dreamlike mystery about disappointment, ambition, and the stories we tell ourselves. Beautiful, unsettling, and rewards multiple viewings.

But It deliberately refuses to make sense in a conventional way. Trying to 'solve' it will frustrate you—you have to surrender to the mood.

Certified Copy2010

Abbas Kiarostami's chamber piece: two people meet in Italy, may or may not know each other, and have a conversation that rewrites itself as you watch. Profound about marriage, copies, and authenticity.

But It's slow, abstract, and the ambiguity is complete. If you want clarity about what you just watched, this will drive you mad.

La Dolce Vita1960

Fellini's Rome: beautiful, cruel, sensual, and deeply funny about the emptiness at the heart of glamour and privilege. It's a masterpiece about how to look busy while searching for meaning.

But At three-and-a-half hours it demands patience, and the view of women is unquestionably of its time. The film knows this, but that doesn't erase it.

Diner1982

A group of men in 1950s Baltimore return home for Christmas and talk about women, work, and who they thought they'd be. Honest, funny, and melancholy about growing up and staying put.

But The casual sexism is period-appropriate but stings. The structure is deliberately loose—if you need a clear plot, you'll find it shapeless.

Chungking Express1994

Both films are really about hesitation—the inability to move decisively into another person's life. But where Renais makes you laugh at the paralysis, Wong Kar-wai makes you ache with it. Different doors into the same room.

Wong Kar-wai's neon-soaked love story shot like a fever dream. Two cops, two women, a mysterious case, and Hong Kong shimmering around them. It's style as substance—a film that creates its own logic through image and mood.

But The plot is deliberately gossamer. If you need narrative drive, the emotional register might feel too lyrical. It's more interested in feeling than plot.