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Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.erotica
Fem Aria Cast: Shayla LaVeaux, Dru Berrymore, Jenna Haze, Shay Sights, Star E. Knight, Ashton Moore, Wanda Curtis, Michelle Michaels, Tanya Daniels, Laurie Wallace
Reviewed by Cain Though I realize it has its proponents, highly stylized porn rarely works for me. Maybe it's a failure of imagination on my part; I can't figure out how to use it. It plays as though it ought to be background accompaniment, but for what? Muzak, with which it appears to me to have much in common, also serves as background accompaniment - to activities like working and shopping. It's there but then again it isn't, like the sound of cicadas in summertime. Only an act of will brings it into focus. As an accompaniment to sex, stylized porn seems rather pointless: why make an effort to watch others having sex when you're doing just fine on your own? Ordinary porn requires no effort; it's there to fuel your desires whenever you care to glance its way. Sex is one activity that, when it needs anything at all, requires something with an edge. Imagine Bo Derek in 10, instead of playing "Bolero" on the stereo, putting on "Muzak to Shop By". Michael Ninn doesn't always get it wrong, but in Fem Aria he comes close. His Diva 4 contained a couple of scenes with real visual power; this film manages only a few moments, and those come near the beginning of the last scene on the disc. Rapid-fire editing, sub-par music, weak scenarios - it doesn't leave a lot of room for that arty magic he's going for. Those few good moments in the last scene are shared between Ashton Moore and Star E. Knight. The setting is a diner and the girls are dressed sexily as waitresses or barmaids. When location and costume match so perfectly, that's about all we need to fill in the rest of the erotic blanks. Not quite all: Dru Berrymore and Michelle Michaels are elegantly dressed and cavort poolside at an elegant mansion; but that's rather vague. Something more was needed to give the girls character and dimension; in other words, to make their sex meaningful and exciting. A still more striking example is the scene starring Shayla LaVeaux and Jenna Haze, which takes place in a wrecking yard amid a bunch of old cars. Who are these girls and what are they doing having sex in a wrecking yard? A couple of waitresses I understand; two random chicks screwing in a desert scrap yard mystifies me. Right about now somebody out there is thinking I'm off my rocker. What about the sex, for goodness' sake? Well, for once that isn't the point. You know how all those other Michael Ninn/Andrew Blake reviews always seems to end up qualifying themselves with a statement that usually begins, "If you're a fan of the director's work..."? There's a reason for that: some people like the arty stuff and some people don't, and the sex is really incidental because the sex is of a piece with the style. It's hard to like one and not the other. And the point I'm trying to make is that Fem Aria is not the film to start a tidal wave of crossover interest. That having been said, I can add this. Both Ashton and Star eat pussy well and erotically and Jenna and Shayla are very alluring when they kiss. Laurie Wallace looks great in a scene set in the foyer of a Tuscany villa and Ashton is very cute here. Dru looks older and more mature than I ever remember seeing her, but the look sits well with her. I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said there weren't things in this movie that are worth watching. On the other hand, I'd be lying if I said they were worth the price of the film. A few minutes of good sex between a few good-looking girls really isn't all that difficult to find in today's marketplace. Then, too, another title might not tempt you do a little housecleaning between the best bits.
Reviewed by Cain
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