How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town

Cassie Cranston is a newspaper sex columnist returning to her hometown for her mother's funeral for the first time since being slut-shamed by her high school classmates who caught her trying to lose her virginity.[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/how-plan-an-orgy-a-863593 'How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town': Slamdance Review]. The Hollywood Reporter, February 11, 2016. In trouble with her publisher because many of the sex stories she has written about were actually fictional, and with her former friends and neighbours because she has often written about them as yokels and rubes, she tries to square the circle by challenging the town to plan an orgy to prove that they are not as provincial as she has depicted them, in turn giving her the opportunity to write a new true story.

{{castlist|

• Jewel Staite as Cassie Cranston
• Ennis Esmer as Adam Mitchell
• Lauren Lee Smith as Heather Mitchell
• Katharine Isabelle as Alice Solomon
• Mark O'Brien as Bruce Buck
• Tommie-Amber Pirie as Polly Murray
• Jonas Chernick as Chester O'Connell
• James McGowan as Spencer Goode
• Kristian Bruun as Seth Parsons
• Gugun Deep Singh as Gus
• Natalie Brown as Anna
• Lauren Holly as Maureen Cranston
• Noah Cappe as Otis
• Christine Horne as Ellie
• Rosemary Dunsmore as Seth's Mom
• Zoe Cleland as Young Cassie

}}

The film premiered at the 2015 Atlantic Film Festival.[http://playbackonline.ca/2015/08/26/natasha-the-saver-to-get-world-bows-at-aff/ "Natasha, The Saver to get world bows at AFF"]. Playback, August 26, 2015. It was later screened at the 2016 Canadian Film Festival, where it won the awards for Best Feature, Best Costume Design and Best Ensemble Cast.Regan Reid, [http://playbackonline.ca/2016/04/04/canadian-film-fest-announces-2016-winners/ "Canadian Film Fest announces 2016 winners"]. Playback, April 4, 2016. On May 13, 2015, the film was released in select theaters and on demand in Canada by Northern Banner and in the United States by Gravitas Ventures.{{cite web |last=Gushway |first=Camille |date=April 4, 2016 |title=Coming Soon: How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town |url=http://playbackonline.ca/2016/04/29/coming-soon-how-to-plan-an-orgy-in-a-small-town/ |accessdate=December 23, 2018 |work=Playback}}

The film received generally negative reviews from critics. {{Rotten Tomatoes prose|29|4.4|14|access-date={{RT data|access date}}}}{{Cite web |title=How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town {{!}} Rotten Tomatoes |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/how_to_plan_an_orgy_in_a_small_town |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=www.rottentomatoes.com |language=en}} {{Metacritic film prose|39|5|access-date=17 January 2025}}{{Cite web |title=How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town Reviews |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/how-to-plan-an-orgy-in-a-small-town/ |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=www.metacritic.com |language=en}}

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a negative score of 1.5 stars out of 4, criticizing the script, which he wrote "alternates between broad shtick, often set to cheeky pop music that only serves to hammer home the overacting and the stagey sequences, and “heavy” moments of truth that feel clunky and forced."{{Cite news |title='How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town' neither sexy nor funny |url=http://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment/how-to-plan-an-orgy-in-a-small-town-neither-sexy-nor-funny/ |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20190407130611/https://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment/how-to-plan-an-orgy-in-a-small-town-neither-sexy-nor-funny/ |archive-date=2019-04-07 |access-date=2025-01-17 |work=Chicago Sun-Times |language=en}} Diego Semerene of Slant Magazine gave the film half a star out of four, writing that "The ingenuity of writer-director Jeremy LaLonde’s How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town ends with its title", and described the characters as behaving "like caricatures moved by uninspired dialogue, not desire."{{Cite web |last=Semerene |first=Diego |date=2016-05-08 |title=Review: How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town |url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/how-to-plan-an-orgy-in-a-small-town/ |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=Slant Magazine |language=en-US}} Seattle Times reviewer Moira McDonald gave a mixed review, describing the film as "sporadically funny and cheerfully tasteless in its low-budget way, but it’s also unevenly acted, a bit overlong and never quite as daring as it seems to want to be."{{Cite web |date=2016-05-12 |title=Canadian ‘Orgy’ is a mild, good-natured sex comedy |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/movies/canadian-orgy-is-a-mild-good-natured-sex-comedy/ |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=The Seattle Times |language=en-US}}

Conversely, Peter Howell of the Toronto Star gave the film 3 stars out of 4, writing the film was "about social anxiety, with Lalonde and his strong ensemble cast smartly illustrating the tyranny of expectations, in and out of the bedroom."{{Cite web |last=Star |first=Peter Howell Movie Critic, Linda Barnard Special to the |date=2016-05-13 |title=Reel Brief: Mini reviews of Dheepan, Neon Bull, Sunset Song, How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town and Fire Song |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/reel-brief-mini-reviews-of-dheepan-neon-bull-sunset-song-how-to-plan-an-orgy/article_1c72a99b-d703-5717-bb82-f51876dc6994.html |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=Toronto Star |language=en}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://howtoplananorgy.com/}}
• {{IMDb title|3919218}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes|how_to_plan_an_orgy_in_a_small_town}}

{{Jeremy Lalonde}}

Category:2015 films

Category:2015 comedy films

Category:2015 independent films

Category:2010s sex comedy films

Category:Canadian independent films

Category:Canadian sex comedy films

Category:English-language Canadian films

Category:2010s English-language films

Category:Films directed by Jeremy Lalonde

Category:Films set in Canada

Category:Films shot in Ontario

Category:2010s Canadian films

Category:English-language independent films

Category:English-language sex comedy films