 "My Father
is Coming" Dir: Monika Treut Starring: Annie Sprinkle, Alfred Edel, Shelley Kastner, Fakir Mustafa... Our first title comes to us from the dark and mysterious Psychotronics Room at Movie Madness. An adult movie (as opposed to a porn movie), it stars ÒNew-age sex goddessÓ Annie Sprinkle. ItÕs amazingly rich Ñ filmed around various areas of eastern Europe, with a European production company. The plotline isnÕt anything surprising Ñ Annie Sprinkle is a (failing) actress/waitress who is hit with a surprise visit from her ostensibly orthodox Austrian father. (Much of the film is subtitled; and for much of the time youÕll probably be as impressed as I was with Annie SprinkleÕs facility in German.) Said father is everything youÕd expect Ñ portly, sour-faced, fond of sausages, stodgy and a little cold. Annie behaves in exactly the way youÕd expect Ñ she overreacts, panics, becomes hysterical. The movie isnÕt interesting because of the plot Ñ itÕs really the small details that add depth and warmth to this film. The cinematographer has gone to an amazing amount of work to tell the substory tucked within the actual plot; without that, this film would resemble a bad Italian comic opera more than a serious drama. For example, itÕs truly amazing how much you can learn about a group of people by watching their reactions to receiving a DustBuster (tm) as a gift. I canÕt explain this well myself Ñ see the film.
 "Lovers, An Intimate
Portrait, Volume I: Sydney and Ray" Dir: Candida Royalle One of the distinctive features of this film is that it is produced by Femme Productions, a porn-for-womyn-by-womyn group. The movie was quite OK; Femme Productions obviously put a little (but not a lot) more work into the seamless integration of the sex scenes than you see in most flesh flicks; featuring an attractive real-life couple talking about and doing the skin-on-skin things that they like to do. Probably because of this, there is far more passionate foreplay than IÕm used to seeing; all very well and good. Unfortunately, in the drop-the-other-shoe department, I was surprised that in all other respects it bears a remarkable resemblance to all of the other garden-variety porn that floats by. With the XX-chromosome-based sendup that this product (and this production company) have earned because of its woman-positive attitude, I kind of expected it to deviate more from the average. If these are the only changes that feminism are going to make to the porn industry, then I might recommend lightening the media hype slightly. Of course, Femme Productions may just have used this product as a rehearsal; perhaps they have more seriously renegade products in store for us that this reviewer hasnÕt seen yet. Remember the name Ñ they are worth the watch and can be found at Movie Madness as well as many couple-friendly adult video shops.
This video, and other sex oddities, can be found at Movie Madness on SE Belmont in Portland. |