Goddess of Love

Since the essential plot elements are mentioned by the other reviewers, all I want to point out is that Goddess of Love is a good-looking little film, with an aura of authenticity. The plot seems to be secondary, making the film an acting showcase for its star, Alexis Kendra, playing the role of a young and mentally unstable stripper named Venus. And what a showcase it is! Helping along is Woody Naismith, in the role of Brian, a photographer and a love interest, playing the character with wonderfully nuanced performance. Once in a while, a film like this one pops out, head and shoulders above films with similar budgets. Beautifully shot and directed by Jon Knautz. Pleasure to watch!

"Goddess of Love" was far better than I was expecting, especially since it was on ScreamBox. And I wish I could rate it higher, but there is slow burn...and way too slow burn. This is the latter.

Alexis Kendra plays stripper Venus, who quickly falls for a recently widowed Australian she meets at the club. It doesn't take long before he's ready to move on and start seeing someone else and she spirals into a manic state. When the new girlfriend brings her stuff that she left at the ex's place, they get into a confrontation. It gets worse when Venus looks through her stuff and finds a busted statue of Venus with a card saying "love" attached. Now she REALLY goes over the bend and after finding the new girlfriend's house, leaves a gift of her own which is really disturbing if you're an animal lover. From that point on it's pretty violent, and the ending is somewhat, "huh?"

Overall, the acting is pretty good, and Kendra is particularly fascinating to watch. Her eyes are beautiful and I could see how she could seduce men easily. She handled the dramatic scenes well and real cried instead of fake cried, so extra points there. The cinematography was quite good, sometimes so stunning it overwhelmed the scenes. The pacing, however, was problematic, and the first two acts are kind of boring while you're waiting for something to happen other than Venus pining over a man who isn't serious about her. You just want to have a heart to heart and say, "Kiddo, you're a stripper. You are never going to be marriage material to him." Of course, she might stab you to death for saying that, as she IS crazy. But was she crazy before Mr. Australia rocked her world? And I'll be honest, I don't recall hearing a soundtrack. If there was one it was apparently incredibly unobtrusive.

Truly, for a relatively low budget film, it doesn't really look that way. And if it wasn't for the dullness of the first part, I think this would have been a far superior film. I think there's a lot of talent here, and I'm hopeful that Kendra has more opportunities.

So, a stripper meets a guy at her job after following the advice from another stripper about picking out men to fleece. The things is, she is a novice and she falls for the guy instead of following her fellow stripper's advice. And we travel into the descent of madness for some strange reason because it doesn't make any logical sense to do so because films seems to speed up a relationship when all logic fails. Why do they do this all the time, a guy meets a girl a girl meets a guy and 3 minutes later they fall in love. Not real and this isn't real. I read another reviewers comments and it seems as if that person may have had a connection with the film because what they wrote had nothing to do with the film and what I experienced. In fact, based on those comments, I watched the film and as I watched it, I was very close to abandoning it because it was treading down well worn paths. I was hoping for better but in the end, it was no surprise with the ending as the attempt to misdirect throughout the film was an absolute failure as was the premise.

Holy crap, what an awesomely entertaining film. I purposely knew nothing about it, other than the written synopsis, and the film ended up being of the most well-made American films I have seen in a long time. The premise starts off simple enough; a very pretty girl meets a man at a strip club and a relationship blooms. Unfortunately, things start to go south very quickly. The level of crazy in this is commendable, and I found myself chuckling at how disturbingly psychotic the female lead became, and by the time the credits start to roll, you are left with a sense of satisfaction that no loose ends were left, which in itself is a success. Coupled with a talented cast, great use of practical special effects, and some amazingly beautiful cinematography (seriously, there were times when I paused the film and thought to myself, "That would make a beautiful painting"), this film is an achievement in cinematic excellence, as far as I am concerned. The people responsible for this should be commended for not only showing the world what films can become at the hands of competent people, but also what a love for the craft embeds into the final product. A treat from start to finish, the writer/director has a new fan and I look forward to what this creative team does next.

A disturbing movie with an absolutely kickass and brave central performance, this should be much more widely known than it is. You won't be able to look away. Makes Fatal Attraction seem like Bambi. Very, very nicely done.