Audacious is the word for this XXX boy/boy exercise that takes Vladimir Nabokov's classic "Lolita" and gives it a whole new life. Far from the "parody" crap that dominates the Adult marketplace, filmmaker Nica Noelle returns to the Golden Age of Porn's format of using mainstream entertainment as inspiration (think: Spinelli's "Nothing to Hide") and succeeds mightily.
When I first started watching Nica's videos, about 120 or so of them ago, I pondered whether she would be the one to finally inherit the mantle of the late Rainer Werner Fassbinder, whose premature death over 30 years ago put an end to the most productive filmmaking career of modern times. After his death it seemed that fellow actor-director Margarethe Von Trotta was poised to inherit RWF's mantle, even directing an unrealized project of his "Rosa Luxemburg", but MVT went on to bring her feminist perspective to a series of quality mainstream projects with her own individual approach.
Noelle's brick-by-brick cinematic approach, her prolific output, and her groundbreaking work in serious treatment of unconventional sex or gender roles dovetails with Fassbinder, and with this venture into Nabokov territory she echoes the great man's Nabokov adaptation "Despair". Target audience of fans merely wanting to get off watching studs humping will get a crash course (in very concentrated form) of creative storytelling here, but with five big-dick sex scenes to boot.
Revelation is Rodney Steele in the role of Hugh Humbert, a mystery man who checks into a quaint New Hampshire inn circa 1947. Noelle's New England locations and period costumes are fine in developing atmosphere, the only shortcoming (these videos are shot on minuscule budgets and just 2 or 3-day schedules) being an anachronistic car for important driving scenes: we only see its interior but it doesn't suggest the '40s whatsoever.
Film is structured as a tall tale told by Adam Russo in the present-day (main action unfolding in lengthy flashback) to Nick Capra, after the duo make love in Russo's new home, the former inn. He bought it cheap due to the place's "tainted reputation".
Opening scene of Nica's favorite superstars is hot and heavy action with Nick typically top to Adam's bottom. It threatened to overshadow the story that follows, reminding me of a rock concert I attended nearly 50 years ago (!) in Cleveland with opening act Soft Machine blowing the roof off, but headliner Jimi Hendrix Experience easily taking care of business following that impressive warm-up.
Underplaying in the correlative to Nabokov's Humbert Humbert creation, Steele is amazing and creepy as he eyes young Ian Levine as Beau aka "Baby Boy", a seductive young thing staying at the inn with his mom Dottie -brilliant stunt casting of dominatrix supreme Mz. Berlin in change of pace as matronly, sex-starved widow. Berlin is a true scene stealer, and very funny handling interview chores trading barbs with the otherwise all-male cast in the BTS short subject on the DVD.
After being introduced in a period red polka-dot dress that screams Camp, Berlin soon seduces Humbert into her Room 7 at the inn, slinking around with her huge breasts hanging out of a slip reminiscent of vintage Elizabeth Taylor's Maggie the Cat. Noelle fades out as the door closes behind them - no hetero sex action in this boy/boy flick so the scene is merely implied.
Levine, who is nearly a dead ringer for jail-bait age Ryan Philippe at the beginning of that star's career, enjoys reading girlie magazines and invites Humbert to join him on his bed checking out "Frolic", a real magazine circa 1951. They masturbate and have sex together in a very naturalistic vignette, directed compassionately by Nica.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
However, Humbert is a sociopath, and when he gives Berlin a ride, which she notices is headed in the wrong direction, the delightful, bountiful fake red-headed tattooed lady exits the film at the 45-minute mark. Her demise is remarkably subtle -merely a shot of Steele emerging from a wooded area, apparently having offed her off-camera.
Film's sex content is embellished by a silent hump scene of shoe-shine boy Kory Houston (omitted from the opening credits but listed at the end) and another inn resident JD Phoenix, one of Nica's go-to performers. Phoenix returns in a key scene late in the show as Humbert spies him involved in a 3-way daisy chain with Levine and burly bear of a man Brad Kalvo. I was disappointed that Kalvo, whose earlier introduction smoking a cigar while having his shoes shined by Kory, didn't turn out to be Clare Quilty, but then Nica brings this film in at under 2 hours rather than lingering for 5 or 6 hours that a full treatment of the material (with lengthy XXX sex scenes included) would have taken.
Film's final sex scene is brief and suspenseful, as Levine gives Humbert a blow job while riding in his car, with the audience worried he may (or may not) suffer the fate of his mommy at Humbert's hands.
I liked the ending, which is even more open-ended than usual in Noelle's canon, and a satisfying way to finish this fable. Acting, particularly by Steele and Berlin, is exemplary and the feature achieves a level of quality rarely scaled ("His Mother's Lover" being my favorite so far) in Nica's dozens of Gay Cinema projects of recent years.
When I first started watching Nica's videos, about 120 or so of them ago, I pondered whether she would be the one to finally inherit the mantle of the late Rainer Werner Fassbinder, whose premature death over 30 years ago put an end to the most productive filmmaking career of modern times. After his death it seemed that fellow actor-director Margarethe Von Trotta was poised to inherit RWF's mantle, even directing an unrealized project of his "Rosa Luxemburg", but MVT went on to bring her feminist perspective to a series of quality mainstream projects with her own individual approach.
Noelle's brick-by-brick cinematic approach, her prolific output, and her groundbreaking work in serious treatment of unconventional sex or gender roles dovetails with Fassbinder, and with this venture into Nabokov territory she echoes the great man's Nabokov adaptation "Despair". Target audience of fans merely wanting to get off watching studs humping will get a crash course (in very concentrated form) of creative storytelling here, but with five big-dick sex scenes to boot.
Revelation is Rodney Steele in the role of Hugh Humbert, a mystery man who checks into a quaint New Hampshire inn circa 1947. Noelle's New England locations and period costumes are fine in developing atmosphere, the only shortcoming (these videos are shot on minuscule budgets and just 2 or 3-day schedules) being an anachronistic car for important driving scenes: we only see its interior but it doesn't suggest the '40s whatsoever.
Film is structured as a tall tale told by Adam Russo in the present-day (main action unfolding in lengthy flashback) to Nick Capra, after the duo make love in Russo's new home, the former inn. He bought it cheap due to the place's "tainted reputation".
Opening scene of Nica's favorite superstars is hot and heavy action with Nick typically top to Adam's bottom. It threatened to overshadow the story that follows, reminding me of a rock concert I attended nearly 50 years ago (!) in Cleveland with opening act Soft Machine blowing the roof off, but headliner Jimi Hendrix Experience easily taking care of business following that impressive warm-up.
Underplaying in the correlative to Nabokov's Humbert Humbert creation, Steele is amazing and creepy as he eyes young Ian Levine as Beau aka "Baby Boy", a seductive young thing staying at the inn with his mom Dottie -brilliant stunt casting of dominatrix supreme Mz. Berlin in change of pace as matronly, sex-starved widow. Berlin is a true scene stealer, and very funny handling interview chores trading barbs with the otherwise all-male cast in the BTS short subject on the DVD.
After being introduced in a period red polka-dot dress that screams Camp, Berlin soon seduces Humbert into her Room 7 at the inn, slinking around with her huge breasts hanging out of a slip reminiscent of vintage Elizabeth Taylor's Maggie the Cat. Noelle fades out as the door closes behind them - no hetero sex action in this boy/boy flick so the scene is merely implied.
Levine, who is nearly a dead ringer for jail-bait age Ryan Philippe at the beginning of that star's career, enjoys reading girlie magazines and invites Humbert to join him on his bed checking out "Frolic", a real magazine circa 1951. They masturbate and have sex together in a very naturalistic vignette, directed compassionately by Nica.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
However, Humbert is a sociopath, and when he gives Berlin a ride, which she notices is headed in the wrong direction, the delightful, bountiful fake red-headed tattooed lady exits the film at the 45-minute mark. Her demise is remarkably subtle -merely a shot of Steele emerging from a wooded area, apparently having offed her off-camera.
Film's sex content is embellished by a silent hump scene of shoe-shine boy Kory Houston (omitted from the opening credits but listed at the end) and another inn resident JD Phoenix, one of Nica's go-to performers. Phoenix returns in a key scene late in the show as Humbert spies him involved in a 3-way daisy chain with Levine and burly bear of a man Brad Kalvo. I was disappointed that Kalvo, whose earlier introduction smoking a cigar while having his shoes shined by Kory, didn't turn out to be Clare Quilty, but then Nica brings this film in at under 2 hours rather than lingering for 5 or 6 hours that a full treatment of the material (with lengthy XXX sex scenes included) would have taken.
Film's final sex scene is brief and suspenseful, as Levine gives Humbert a blow job while riding in his car, with the audience worried he may (or may not) suffer the fate of his mommy at Humbert's hands.
I liked the ending, which is even more open-ended than usual in Noelle's canon, and a satisfying way to finish this fable. Acting, particularly by Steele and Berlin, is exemplary and the feature achieves a level of quality rarely scaled ("His Mother's Lover" being my favorite so far) in Nica's dozens of Gay Cinema projects of recent years.