Lipstick

Michael Raven, shooting on film rather than video, crafts an excellent and suspenseful porn drama, making the most of a spare, unobtrusive script. Many would classify it as "All Sex", but like the previous reviewer on IMDb they would be missing a point.

Some 18 years later, the balance for porn fans has indeed shifted toward the all-sex end of the spectrum, but even at the turn of this century there was a war going on between traditional story & character driven Adult Cinema (dating back to the theatrical age of the 1970s and early '80s) and wall-to-wall sex shows.

So Raven successfully attempts here to thread the needle, presenting brief but effective dialog scenes to set up the situation and main characters, then delivering softcore and hardcore sex without interruption.

The lovely Euro import Katja Kean stars in this Sin City release, always elegant and nearly aloof, as mastermind Mike Horner gives her a series of five lessons (the five sex vignettes' structure of video of the day) in how to please a man. This format is roughly a version of the classic Pygmalion or in porn circles Story of O -training a woman, as misogynistic as that sounds (and is).

The setting is a tropical paradise, filmed in the environs of Bev Hills and Chatsworth, with Raven maintaining fine suspense until all is revealed at the end. I only guessed the outcome in the last couple of minutes, and found the resolution of the film to be most satisfying.

Kean makes for a perfect model, and her acting is spare and subtle, while Horner carries the show with his gravitas. Supporting cast is more or less relegated to sex worker status, but solid players like April and Sydnee Steele, as well as a pre-boob-enhancement Bridgette Kerkove as a peep show girl, flesh out the show. Title is meaningless, just a name for a new video release.