Reviewed by SexHerald Staff
Shadow Play hits the ground running and sets the tone early with the patio-side man-on-woman opening sex scene. Our heroine, Krystal Steal, watches from a second-floor window, eventually becoming aroused enough to masturbate along with them. The sex itself is unremarkable, but the nicely edited cutaways to Steal watching, and even once ortwice ducking behind a curtain when the man glances upward, recreate the naughty thrill of voyeurism.
Steal doesn’t say a word in this movie until about halfway through the movie, and when she does, it’s obvious why: every line she utters lands like a bag of wet sand. In a genre not known for its delicate line-readings, she sets a new standard for monotone bluntness. As it happens, this tendency stands out, because this movie is trying to be artistic, telling a story, as the box says,“of fantasy, love and lust deeply buried within the soul of a magnificent woman.” Any time a porn movie starts using theword “soul,” beware.
The good news is that it rarely lets its aspirations get in theway of some good, old-fashioned sex. In fact, for all its promised “blend of mind and reality,” it wastes no time with exposition. Even after watching the movie I’m unsure of theplot, other than that it’s about a young, sexually curious but inexperienced woman who learns to get in touch with her inner bondage queen.
In a later scene at a strip club, Steal is led onto a stage by a mysterious woman who promises to teach her all sorts of things about herself (is this real or fantasy? I just don’t know!). She puts on one of the better pole-stripping performances I’ve seen while watching a couple go at it in the audience. Again, the sex is predictable but with Steal grinding and swaying in the backgroundas she watches, it sets a subtle tone of taboo excitement.
But the movie is leading, naturally, to the climactic final scene in which Steal discovers the depths of her own sexual appetite, and it is both the best and the worst scene of the movie. On the one hand, the costumes (leather, bondage-type stuff) and props (Steal is restrained in a sort of half-swing, half-hammock made for fucking) suggest deliciously bizarre sexual perversity. Less exciting are the people in flannel shirts, standing around watching. In the midst of this intense atmosphere of a leather-clad sexual cult, some of the participants look like the just wandered in from a truck pull.
Most of the performers are your standard, cookie-cutter porn stars,and none more so than Steal, whose bleach-blonde mane, tiny waist,and overly inflated breasts are the stuff of porn stereotype. That said, she is also a terrific performer, conveying enough energy to turn on the audience, but not so much that it becomes ridiculous. And, it bears repeating, watch out for that pole-dance. ShadowPlay The girl has talent!
 Email this review to a friend
|
