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 Studio: Digital Playground
Director: Robby D.
Cast: Stoya, James Deen, Annette Schwarz, Tommy Gunn, Memphis Monroe, Hannah West
Stoya has padding in all the right places, but perhaps her near-translucent skin made me think "Deeper? How deep can you get into Stoya without being behind her?"
But director Robby D.'s gonzo title that boasts two interludes between Stoya and James Deen as well as scenes featuring Hannah West, Tommy Gunn, Memphis Monroe, and Annette Schwarz do get satisfyingly deeper into their subjects by doing nothing more than offering bits of personality and "business."
Pre-makeup sex, Stoya bites the head off a rose. Tommy Gunn explains to his buddy that he hasn't found the mute button on "new wife" Memphis Monroe. And there's one more thing that I would like to see in porn movies: the dismount. In Deeper 11 it is provided by Annette Schwarz.
 Male performers tell me that they are like assistant directors in porn scenes; they are often called on to position the women in the most flattering light. But Robby D. (at least I'm going to give him credit for this) in Schwarz' scene directs her by letting the sweat-slicked uberpornfrau be herself. Sometimes the best way to direct is get out of the way.
So when Schwarz moves from one position on her partner to another, where one director might omit that transition, director D. leaves it in, and we see Schwarz, all puffy labia and long legs, leap coltishly off and then back on. I love the dismount.
 But back to Stoya (the movie, as you remember, concerns Stoya). Her most valuable asset out of all 5'9" of valuable assets is her facial expression. When she, as much as in frustration as in lust (I assume porn girls are capable of lust) screams "I want your cock!" I can read it in her face.
 This movie is a hit. A great cast and the faith to let them be themselves is a winning combination.
Labels: "digital playground", "robby d", Annette Schwarz, directors, Hannah West, James Deen, Memphis Monroe, stoya, Tommy Gunn
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Spunk'd: The Movie - Ponante & Cachapero review
 Studio: 6969 Entertainment
Director: Justin Kane
Cast: Aurora Snow, Penny Flame, Hillary Scott, Lexi Belle, Eva Angelina, Vanessa Lane, Katie Morgan, Mikayla, Ginger Lea, Jada Fire, Kelli Brooks, Ron Jeremy, Steven St. Croix, Trent Soluri, Herschel Savage, Dick Nasty, Marcos Leon, Nick Manning, Evan Stone
Portions of this review first appeared on XBiz and may have been edited. What follows is my edit of the article.
GRAM PONANTE: The most important thing to remember about "Spunk'd" is that it was made outside of porn's studio system.
Porn, which often tries to position itself as indie cinema, is often more constricted than its Hollywood counterpart. So low are the margins in porn that most companies can't afford a movie that doesn't fit the formula, so movies like “Spunk'd,” with its large cast and elongated shooting schedule, often don't get made.
JOANNE CACHAPERO: Very astute, Professor Ponante. If sex were kung-fu, try writing something creative around five or six fight sequences that have to last 20 minutes each, leaving you half an hour for character development and to throw down some sort of storyline. Oh, and shoot it all in two days, okay?
 Not to mention, most porn companies are interested in a product that will sell, not in making an art movie or a comedy, so they’re apt to stick to what is perceived as a moneymaker; the standard formula or a copy of someone else’s successful movie.
This is the same mentality in mainstream Hollywood that brought you bloated extravaganzas like “Mission Impossible III,” only in adult, it’s “Mondo Bukkake Cum Festival 54.”
GP: Well, because it was a Cum Festival, it got NEA funding. I like how you wryly lampoon the porn industry by making up a movie title and then adding a high number to it. I'm going to steal that. In fact, I'm Going to Steal That 27!!!
JC: And who writes the fucking formula? Adult audiences have been trained to expect a certain sequence of events. Granted, one man’s gonzo is another man’s Shakespeare, but more often than not what you end up with is either a dreadfully boring, formula-driven stroke flick where, if you’re lucky, you might get a really hot scene or two.
There’s something to be said for recognizing the farce in a porno context. The great thing about “Spunk’d” is director Justin Kane sees what a goof it can be, and just keeps piling it on by throwing in everything else that’s goofy about the media-obsessed, reality-driven mainstream world that we live in.
I don’t know how it is for you, Gram, but when a guy asks me to take one in the face in real life, it is kind of amusing. I try to act all serious like it’s a real turn-on, but deep inside, I’m laughing my ass off.
GP: You were laughing inside? At Thanksgiving? In front of my parents?
JC: Anyway, there are more loads being dropped in “Spunk’d” than there are cellphone pix of Britney Spears’ kootch on TMZ.com.
GP: Exactly, Jo-Jo. What makes this a special movie is that it has finally made the sacred connection between reality TV and porn. The problem with reality TV is it never admits it's porn with better production values and no penetration. Well, except market penetration.
A parody of the basic cable Ashton Kutcher prank vehicle "Punk'd," "Spunk'd" merely takes the conceit a little further by adding sex to it.
So where "The Simple Life" will introduce Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie to a hillbilly family, "Spunk'd" brings Hairless Hilton and Cornhole Richie to a hillbilly family that, naturally, fucks them.
JC: There ain’t nothin’ natural about it, Gram. I thought I would fall off the couch, this scene was so funny.
GP: Luckily the couch was on your lawn already.
JC: When big brother Trent (played by Trent Soluri) is getting a hummer from his loving sister Phoebe Sue (played by Kelli Brooks) and tells Hairless and Cornhole, “My sister could suck start a leaf blower,” it just gets better from there.
Pretty soon it’s in-bred hootenanny fun for the whole family. Mom and Dad (played by Ginger Lea and Steven St. Croix) have their hillybilly on the whole time. When Hairless finally takes it in the rear from Daddy, Mom looks over and smiles, “I know we’ve never been able to afford it, but now you can say you’ve been in a Hilton.”
 My other favorite scene in the movie is when “Lindsay Blohan” has to go through a security check with boy-pal “Wilmer Balled-Yer-Mama” (played by Marcos Leon).
Blohan is played by very pretty Penny Flame — who actually looks like Lindsay “It’s not my coke, officer” Lohan. And let’s face it, deep down inside, all of America believes that those tabloid celebutante princesses like La Lohan are all bound to end up in homemade sex tapes once their mainstream careers take a crap anyway. It’s only a 30-minute ride from Beverly Hills to Chatsworth, you know, and at this point Lohan just might do anything for a couple of bumps, if you know what I mean.
GP: No, Joanne. No, I don’t. I left working at adult trade magazines so I wouldn’t have to know what you mean.
And Nick Manning, in a scenery-chewing performance as Gashton Kootcher, busts through the door with a camera crew to spunk on the girls’ faces. Good times had by all.
JC: Yup. Manning is a perfect ham as Kootcher, but toward the end, in this weird “Witches of Eastwick” reverse gangbang when Manning is tied up and ravished by three demon-ettes (Mikayla, Eva Angelina and Vanessa Lane), you kind of wish the girls would smother him more.
GP: Porn is so intent on being taken seriously — witness movies like "Corruption" and "Sacred Sin" — that it forgets a lot of its appeal is in escapism and ridiculousness. As you know Joanne, it is difficult addressing weighty issues like the abuse of power and infant mortality (themes tackled in "Corruption" and "Sacred Sin," respectively) when loads are being deposited on 19-year-old faces.
JC: Wow, you’re in a serious mood, Gram, after watching such a delightful romp. Honestly, it’s kind of a turn-on when you get all intellectual like this, professor.
Anyway, I agree. The one thing adult can do that Hollywood can’t is show penetration. But it’s almost impossible to capitalize on it because a lot of people still feel uncomfortable viewing actual sex, even if it’s in a “real” movie. It’s a little too much “reality” even if the audience knows it’s all choreographed and staged.
So, what do a lot of people do when they’re faced with something that makes them feel squeamish? They crack a joke.
It’s the same logic behind the least-attractive guy that gets laid all the time because he has a great sense of humor. In fact, comedy is always best when it’s based on something totally socially unacceptable and over-the-top.
GP: Justin Kane made this movie with an excellent cast and his own and his buddy's money. He used to work at Nectar but opted to make this film himself, a decision that has paid off in an excellent movie that takes reality TV to its logical conclusions.
JC: God love him — it must have cost a fortune, but a very fine freshman debut!
GP: In addition to above-average production quality — a split-screen Hillary Scott plays the Holeson twins — when have you ever seen a split screen in porn? Kane gets some hilarious performances out of not only usual suspects like Penny Flame, Steven St. Croix, and Nick Manning, but also people like Katie Morgan, Marcos Leon, and Ginger Lea.
JC: Don’t forget Evan Stone. A special shout-out to Morgan, who also was in a Jim Holliday movie we reviewed, and performed with the same fun-loving gusto in both movies. And you’ve got your classic stars, too — the ubiquitous Ron Jeremy, Herschel Savage and Dick Nasty.
It sure looked like the cast was having a lot of fun.
GP: "Spunk'd" also fluidly mixes dialogue with sex. Sex scenes are not discrete in this movie — there is talking throughout — and that is an adjustment that is easy to make.
JC: Maybe because I’m a girl…
GP: …but not yet a woman.
JC: I found myself wanting to rush through the sex scenes a little bit to see what the next wild set-up would be. But don’t get me wrong — the sex was pretty hot and definitely strokable.
GP: "Strokable"? Who are you - AVN? Get out of my office.
A movie like "Spunk'd" makes me think studios should throw fifty or sixty grand, once a year, at an outside filmmaker and just leave him or her alone. In this case, the results are fantastic. I would, of course, represent Big Porn's interests on the set to ensure that over-artsy auteur don't think it's OK to cut to the guy's face during the pop shot.
JC: Unless he’s the one getting spunked! But now we’re talking about a whole different kind of movie.
See also: 2007: The Year Spunk'd Broke
 Labels: Aurora Snow, directors, Eva Angelina, Hillary Scott, justin Kane, Lexi Belle, Penny Flame, ponante and cachapero, xbiz
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 Studio: Wicked
Director: Brad Armstrong
Cast: Kirsten Price, Shyla Styles, Barrett Blade, Scott Lyons, Vanessa Lane, Savannah Stern, Gianna Lynn, Chris Cannon, Christian, Tyler Knight, Brooke Banner, Jada Fire, Kayla Carrera, Mikayla, Derrick Pierce, Marcus London
Portions of this review originally appeared on Fleshbot
Poor Brian Parsons (Brad Armstrong) is called to serve his country in Iraq, lamenting the U.S. Army's lack of 18-year-olds. Luckily, porn has 18-year-olds in spades, so Brian's girlfriend (Kirtsen Price) makes his last week stateside one to remember.
Brian asks his buddy Jimmy (Barrett Blade) to take care of his girl while he's away. I feared the worst.
"If that was me," Blade's girlfriend says, "I'd keep you to myself for a week."
The two couples get together at the same bar from Porn Valley. There are a thousand stories there.
As his departure grows nearer, Brian receives a creepy farewell from Charlie, his boss. "I always felt you were the son I never had," Charlie says. This has to be in the top ten, at least, of Quotes Inappropriate for a Porn Movie.
I wondered how the movie would squeeze sex into the boot camp and Iraq scenes, but with the help of dream sequences and the presence of female soldiers (in the same way Hawkeye availed himself of Lt. Dish), that problem was taken care of easily.
Unfortunately, Brian doesn't make it. His small town thinks the worst of Jimmy drying the widow's tears. Brian's brother accuses Blade and Price of not mourning long enough when he finds them at a drive-in together.
"Stop stirring the pot, you little shit!" Jimmy cries.
For the hundredth time I wondered if Wicked's Real Movies But with Sex m.o. was an effective strategy, but the drive-in scene was pretty cool.
Meanwhile, Brooke is getting suspicious of Jimmy and Kirsten. And for good reason!
Brooke retaliates. She calls Jimmy a "fucking dummy" in a monologue that I think prospective porn talent should memorize for auditions.
Coming Home is a movie that drops its cliches as it goes, so by the end it really forgets it's a porn film and becomes something else, something heartfelt. Could that be good? I don't know. It is difficult for a porn movie to sell tragedy, though plenty of them attempt it. This is a porn movie that ends sadly, and there is logic in the sadness. But Coming Home is not the movie to watch if one is already guilty about jerking off to porn.
Director/writer/star Brad Armstrong has improved on Flashpoint, the reissue version of which I reviewed here recently. Coming Home features only strong performances (save for the gas station manager) and the story is much tighter. It also makes a play for some of the biggest consumers of porn, the U.S. military, and doesn't do soldiers a disservice, even on a porn budget.
Labels: brad armstrong, brooke banner, directors, kirsten price, wicked
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Chasey Reloaded
 Studio: Red Light District/Forbidden Cinema
Director: James Avalon
Cast: Chasey Lain, Daisy, Tory Lane, Isabella Sky, Christiana Aguchi, Savannah Stern, John West, Eric Masterson, Franko Del Toro, Reno
While Reloaded, celebrating Chasey Lain's first non-condom work in years, and her "return", as it were, to performing after a recent history of trainwreck behavior, was not over-hyped (and kudos to anyone involved in that decision-making process for the uncharacteristic restraint), Lain herself doesn't seem to be the star of her own movie.
While recent events in the porn community suggest that bottom-scraping marketers will use anything to get their shitty movie noticed, I think Chasey: Reloaded might have benefited a little from addressing Lain's recent absence from the business. Instead, she seems to play a background part in a stylized and smoking series of vignettes directed by James Avalon.
The movie is a slow burn. The first half of the project's six scenes don't really set the mood. Reloaded opens with a scene called "The Schoolgirl" between Lain and Lindsey Meadows. That Meadows is initially tied up and might be wearing a schoolgirl outfit is the only thing that justifies the title, because within moments she is delivering a strap-on to Lain. The setting was a little too dark for me; it would be good to have seen more of Lain; she's a little older and the results of a decadent lifestyle look good on her. A little more light would have been nice to show the contrast between the two women, and the vignette title was a head-scratcher.
Christiana Aguchi and Eric Masterson star in the next scene, "Asian Invasion". This, too, is an odd title, because Aguchi's domme hat in the first few seconds of the scene suggests that she'll be doing the invading. But it quickly turns into a standard sex scene, well-shot though it was.
"A Glass of Wine" comes next, with Savannah Stern getting double-teamed by Franko Del Toro and Reno just for spilling a little wine on her boobs. So far, the movie is murkily-lit couples' porn, but doesn't really catch fire.
Then comes "Girls in Bikinis", shot on a hill in Malibu and featuring Daisy, Isabella Sky, and Lain. This is the first really fun scene of the movie, and Daisy steals it. While Lain herself hovers out of the shot (or she might have been halfway down the hill by this point), a scene that started as a threesome becomes a duet between Daisy and Sky, culminating in Daisy squirting as a result of Sky's deft dildo skills.
My favorite episode came next. The movie's only untitled vignette, it featured Tory Lane and John West fucking on a courtyard fountain. This is the sort of scene that should be put in a time capsule as an example of fantasy porn style that doesn't skimp on substance. We open on a shot taken through Lane's legs, standing in a classic hooker pose, as she regards West reading a paper (an article about lonelygirl15, as a matter of fact) on the rim of a fountain at the end of a columned path. She rips the paper out of his hand and takes over. The scene should have been called "Tory Lane Against Literacy".
Say what you will about the useless architectural fripperies of SoCal mansions, but they're great for shoooting porn movies.
Laine, as the producer of the movie, might have in fact picked the cast. If that is the case, she chose mostly muscly guys reminiscent of Dick Tracy villains, particularly West and Reno, but also Christian, whose scene with Lain ends the movie. That Chasey (Lain) and Tory (Lane) are both solid girls (for porn, anyway - meeting them in person, one is still amazed at how tiny they seem, so imagine how comparably tiny people like Lindsey Meadows and Christiana Aguchi are) working with big guys, the viewer has the sense that something is actually happening. That is refreshing.
The last scene was shot at night, most likely at the end of a long day of filming. Lain herself stands in a courtyard (probably the same one as before), and encounters Christian. It is yet another too-dark scene, but Laine has put together a great crew as a producer, particularly Avalon and porn veteran Sharon Kane, who art-directed superbly.
It was a shame to not see more of Lain, both in the scenes she was in and the scenes she wasn't in, if that makes sense, in her own movie. I hope she makes more movies, and schedules her own scenes for the morning, and outside.
Labels: "james avalon", "red light district", directors, wgl
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Nowhere Angels
 Studio: Metro/Cal Vista
Director: DCypher
Cast: Riley Mason, Justine Joli, Leah Luv, Veronica Jett, Charlotte Stokely, Cassie Courtland, Barrett Blade, Eric Masterson
Portions of this review originally appeared on Fleshbot
Rachel (Justine Joli) asks us to forgive another tale of post-adolescent angst as she narrates from her diary. Well, OK. As long as it's you who's asking...
Rachel wastes her time in a nowhere town with her nowhere boyfriend, Tommy, who orders burgers while she eats fish sticks. The relationship is doomed. She reads Anais Nin at Tommy's band practice and his buddies call her Yoko. Get out of there!
Rachel loves Lauren (Riley Mason), but Lauren is fucking Tommy.
Their days are spent on parties and getting prepared for parties.
"They were just diversions from the realization that our lives were going nowhere," Rachel says.
I would like to say that Joli's world changes when she refuses to be someone's coke whore and Leah Luv agrees to it instead, but that's not the way it is in that dusty town.
She wishes Tommy would be content to fuck all her friends and not waste his time trying to fuck her (her love belongs to another). She longs to get out, but will she suddenly miss everything that she has left behind?
Sympathetic lead Damien (Eric Masterson) meanwhile has similar lofty dreams. Will he be published as a writer? He quotes Kerouac and hangs around near walls with "Pynchon" spraypainted on them. He is stuck in a marriage and a mortgage. His wife (Veronica Jett) is a crankhead who hooks on the side to make up for what his shitty bookstore job doesn't earn him.
"I know now how foolish and fragile and intoxicating hope can be for a young soul in a corporate-owned world," Damien says.
DCypher is going to pay bigtime for stealing my life story.
Veronica Jett thinks her husband is a big pussy, reading his books and weeping into the night.
"We are the angels of nowhere; the candle's last pretty flicker before the candle goes dark," she says. Zing!
Maybe those Nowhere Angels have lost their souls in their dusty high-desert debauches, but at least they have each other, and their music. Despite their lousy attitudes, too, their girlfriends are pretty hot. I don't know why everyone is so goddamn whiny.
Labels: dcypher, directors, dvd, reviews
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Jesse Jane: Image
 Studio: Digital Playground
Director: Robby D.
Cast: Jesse Jane, Alektra Blue, Daisy Marie, Isabella Dior
Portions of this review originally appeared on Fleshbot
If life has taught us anything, it is that Jesse Jane, like a shaved, 3-in-1 ZZ Top, can appear to right wrongs and fight crimes. Such is her role in "Image", a must-have for fans of the Oklahoma Sex Wraith.
Such is Jane's celebrity that director Robby D. has crafted most of the movie around how others see her. The first scene takes place in either the personal screening room of a Porn Valley mogul or one of the dozen or so postage stamp cinemas in Copley Square, Boston.
Rick Patrick (Jane's husband in real life) is watching a film of Jane giving the business to a fey Eurostud in the empty theatre. He has popcorn and a soft drink. He is absently fiddling around in his jeans when Lo! Jane appears and spills popcorn on him. In her zeal to clean up the mess, she fucks the living shit out of him.
It is actually a very nice scene. Patrick is about nine feet tall but has an aw shucks expression throughout the interlude, as if he can't believe he is having sex with Jesse Jane. I feel he wasn't acting.
The next scene finds Marco Banderas and Daisy Marie coupling in what appears to be Willy Wonka's glass elevator retrofitted as a wine cellar. Perched on the glass ceiling is Jane, who, though the pair don't really need it, helps the couple along from above.
While it is always a pleasure to see Daisy, I found myself wondering what kind of person tells his or her architect, "I want a glass-ceilinged wine cellar that I can see from my kitchen". The effect of the scene was like watching "Good Morning America" but with people having sex behind the window rather than holding up signs reminding the nation that the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America is headquartered in Kenosha, WI.
Jane suffers from gym rage in her next encounter, a girl-on-girl affair with Alektra Blue. The two are working out and Jane quickly becomes jealous of Blue's brute strength, so decides to do something about it. Blue has had some work done since the first time I saw her, but though just a little more curvy, she appears downright voluptuous compared to Jane. The bottom line is that it seemed unrealistic that Jane could take Blue in a fight, but it was a tasty scene nonetheless. Kudos to wardrobe mistress Celeste (also a Digital Playground director), who got Blue up in a green gym ensemble, complete with green-striped kneesox and a cameltoe.
Jane appears in Isabella Dior's mirror in the penultimate scene, giving the doe-like pornstress the motivation to bust a move on Scott Nails, who reappears to fuck Jesse out of her perch in the closet in the movie's final match-up.
"You're not going to work before you fuck me," says Jane in a perfect Valentine's Day message.
I like this "image" of Jane, silly and confident simultaneously, and the hyper-real settings are just loopy enough without being too much of a distraction. What is a slight distraction is Jane's weight. Since Jane mentioned it herself when we talked at this year's AVN Expo, I don't feel bad observing there will be more to love if she puts on a few pounds. What makes Jane the celebrity she is is her accessibility; if she goes Hollywood and strives for wafer-thinness she will cease to be real.
Labels: "digital playground", "robby d", directors, dvds, reviews, wgl
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Dreaming of Snow
 Studio: Ethnicity Films/Metro
Director: David Aaron Clark
Cast: Annie Cruz, Brian Surewood, Cris Taliana, Heidi Ho, Kylie Rey, Mila Yung, Mr. Hentai, Mr. Marcus, Kammy, Sabrine Maui, Sledge Hammer, Sylvio Mata, Tami Lynn, Tyler Knight, Veronica Lynn
Portions of this review originally appeared on Fleshbot
David Aaron Clark, who worked in New York for earlier incarnations of Screw and Genesis magazines and wrote for various smut publications on the west coast before trying his hand at directing adult fare, is a pervert. He is also one of the smartest, most thoughtful men in the porn business, which tortures him.
This combination allows Clark to effectively articulate his fetishes, one of which is Asian women, and present them in a way that makes you say "I get it". His low budget, made-on-a-Mac movies are little works of unaffected, earnest, painstaking art in which beauty, humor, regret, boobies, and creepiness vie for the viewer's attention.
"You just have that tragic look that just translates so well," Clark says to Tami Lynn at the beginning of this compilation. As offstage gonzo director dialogue, that works a hell of a lot better than "Fuck. You've got great tits." While emotion has overwhelmed me to often utter the latter, good porn deserves more of the former.
"I pretty much almost never make a mistake," says Lynn, about to be taken aback by Clark standby Mr. Marcus. Longtime partner in crime Brian Surewood also makes a few appearances.
"Then what are you doing here?" Clark asks. The movie (full title: Dreaming of Snow: The Best of David Aaron Clark's Existential AZN Girl Gonzo) is chock full of unsanitized moments between an older man and the much younger women he photographs, sometimes in his apartment in L.A.'s Koreatown but also in swankier, less-realistic places, like Beverly Hills. Clark is unabashed in his affection for these women, talking to them like he can't believe his luck but also that he will go to Hell for it.
This puts the women at ease, humanizes them. Sometimes it freaks them out.
Conversations with his subjects paint an accurate picture of the parasitic side of the adult industry.
"You have no idea how ambitious I am," Clark is told by Kylie Rey. "I will do just about anything for money."
"I support entrepreneurship 100 percent," Clark responds. He later persuades her to scoop ice cream out of her vagina. She really is ambitious. He asks her if she's a Republican.
In alternating scenes, we see performers having fun or cashing a check.
"Are you looking forward to getting fucked?" Clark asks Heidi Ho, owner of the Best Asian Porn Name Ever (other than Hoochie Maguchi).
"I guess," she says.
"I guess?"
Later Mr. Marcus advises Kammy to throw her arms up in the air and shout "I wanna be a star" as he fucks her. She does. That scene should definitely adorn the promotional material for the Porn Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Through it all - as it is through most of Clark's gonzo movies - his plummy basso profundo resonates offscreen like he's a member of the World's Seamiest Barbershop Quartet.
You might see some contradictions in this site's coverage of what we call the Gonzo Gaze. Some directors batter the talent and assault their audience with their boorish commentary. The impression I'm left with is that, for those directors, the movie is about them. For Clark it's about the performers, even if he's the one getting the blowjob.
Labels: "david aaron clark", asian, directors, dvds
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Studio: Digital Playground
