Imagine for a moment if the heroes of Klown, Frank and Casper, landed in the 60’s, at the height of the sexual revolution, and started taking over small Danish airlines. Titled Sex Drugs & Taxation for its international release, director Christoffer Boe delivers, as promised, a wild ride. This is the true story of two college buddies who form an unusual bond, the playboy Simon Spies (played masterfully by Pilou Asbaek, with the help of brilliant prosthetics work) and tax lawyer Mogens Glistrup (Nicolas Bro). Glistrup is essentially the Danish version of Grover Norquist, pledging not only no new taxes, but no taxes at all.
Larger than life Danish urban legends, Spies and Glistrup were outrageous self destructive figure, with the former the host of massive booze and drug filled orgies and the latter hellbent on finding the perfect loophole. As a family man, Glistrup discovers the solution, setting up profit-draining shell companies in a hilarious scene while playing with his daughter’s dolls.
Told with wit and energy, much of this is unbelievable and the film even opens with a disclaimer “Everything is True, Unless it’s Not.” Similar in tone to Klown (and at times almost as hilarious) certain sections of Sex, Drugs & Taxation drag, but the overall story remains incredibly captivating. Delivering a truly brave (and often naked, from the waist down) performance, Pilou Asbaek embodies a character that is part Howard Hawks, part Zack Galifianakis. Nicolas Bro gives, at times, a moving performance, particularly considering we first encounter Glistrup playing ping pong by himself in a college dorm. Spies interjects with a bevy of beautiful women and a bottle of booze and their friendship is formed; perhaps he should have known better.
Launching Denmark’s first budget airline in 1969 through a series of maneuvers, it’s rather remarkable the whole thing didn’t implode with Spies frequent sabbaticals, as he is pointing the finger at his number two, telling everyone he was now in charge. Both men have well-developed, often wild arcs, even when the story moves towards its most explicit moments (often blending cringe -nducing elements with humor, especially in the film’s funniest moment, as Spies chases off a gorilla by waving his penis at it).
By 1983, Glistrup leaves the aviation business to start the progressive party hell bend on ending taxation. It is the sex, drugs and taxation that bring these two men together: both are fighting the system. Spies becomes a quasi-reality TV star in the late 70s’, having sex with some 20-women at once on camera, while Glistrup picks fights he’s bound to lose. Brave and loose, Sex Drugs & Taxation is a wild ride, even if it sometimes gets away from director Christoffer Boe, but it delivers exactly what it promises, and perhaps a bit more.
Sex Drugs & Taxation premiered at TIFF. One can see the trailer above and our complete coverage by clicking below.
