As a kid my favorite "Twilight Zone" episodes were about questioning one's identity, for example the one that presaged the later "Truman Show" movie. Adult filmmaker James Avalon takes on this weighty subject in a remarkably light-hearted, entertaining comedy/suspense feature about porn filmmaking with "Shrink Wrapped", a trifle that deserves a wider following.
Like those soufflé comedies of the '70s that we derided as mere "French Fluff" at the time ("Cousin Cousine" and hundreds of other imports, plentiful since art houses playing such movies were still in vogue), Avalon's video is so light as to seem frivolous. But he has given great attention to the topic and an engaged viewer will be rewarded.
MANY SPOILERS:
Feature begins, as did Avalon's classic "Blue Dahlia" 3 years before, with mesmerizing narration as we watch a prostitute (lovely Black actress Charlie Angel) servicing a john (James Bonn) and pouring out her life's story. This MOS sequence with mysterious music playing is resolved when after the money shot we see her on a couch at her shrink's office, a patient. Closeup of her file identifies "Nikki Starr", profession: "Actress (prostitute)", a telling reveal that sets up the rest of Avalon's film as well as not-too-subtly raising that age-old question that continues to linger in my mind: is XXX film performing actually a form of prostitution?
Her shrink, in handsome business suit, is glamorous gonzo star Alexa Rae. The session is interrupted when a director yells "Cut" and we see this office is just a movie set, and the director (Herschel Savage) blows his top at some problem with the production. Alexa complains vigorously, wondering why these people have invaded her office, and what's going on here? She appears to be under the delusion that she's really the psychiatrist, her film role, and that Charlie as Nikki is really her patient.
The fast-paced feature at this point goes into first gear, but Avalon is careful to leave open just a glimmer of a possibility ("Twilght Zone" time) that despite all the evidence presented to us to the contrary, perhaps Alexa as Dr. Emily Brackenbush is lucid and everyone else is wrong about what constitutes reality. This is a wonderful subject for a film, and Avalon never drops the ball as he juggles the parallel world he's created.
In one of his best character roles (and quite refreshing compared to so many latter-day pointless appearances), Ron Jeremy co-stars as the gung-ho agent who must deal with Alexa's breakdown in the middle of a shoot. He assures Savage he will handle it, and takes Alexa to the mansion (fictional address in the script) she claims is her home, to prove to her that she's hallucinating or something.
They arrive and Evan Stone is there humping a young actress who is auditioning for him - he's a big porno producer. Turns out that Alexa is imagining this sex scene too, for when it's over, Evan sees her and gets angry, since she was his recent live-in girlfriend who told him off and left some time ago. So Alexa was right about this being her address, but the details remain ambiguous, as she was Alexa the actress living there with this producer.
Meanwhile back on the set, an actress (tall & willowy Cheyenne Silver) has been sent over to play the role of Dr. Brackenbush's secretary, and director Savage auditions her in time-honored fashion, humping her in the prop room.
Ron takes Alexa to his office and tries to jog her memory concerning her forgotten career as a porno actress. She does have feelings of deja vu and brief memory flashes, as he shows her one of his videos he made as a successful gonzo director. We see a hot lesbians scene starring Bridgette Kerkove and Tina Cherry with Ron himself joining in for a 3-some. Alexa remembers a three-way in his office with two porno studs, and it sure looks like she's Alexa the star not the doc.
There are several more twists and turns, leading to a finale that is brilliantly staged. Alexa has returned to the porn set and seems to fall asleep at the desk. They're filming another scene with Charlie as her patient and now Cheyenne is the secretary, and it's left open-ended whether in fact she is the doctor for real (the stuff about being Alexa the porn actress being just a nightmare) or we were correct all along in assuming she's been acting crazy.
The best ending like that is from an unjustly ultra-obscure film I have loved for many years, Hugo Haas's 1954 "The Other Woman" about a perfect crime. Avalon, like Haas, deserves more recognition as a highly personal and adventurous filmmaker working in a genre not treated with even a modicum of respect or seriousness (even the Adult industry awards are calibrated to just a "hot sex scene" mentality).
Like those soufflé comedies of the '70s that we derided as mere "French Fluff" at the time ("Cousin Cousine" and hundreds of other imports, plentiful since art houses playing such movies were still in vogue), Avalon's video is so light as to seem frivolous. But he has given great attention to the topic and an engaged viewer will be rewarded.
MANY SPOILERS:
Feature begins, as did Avalon's classic "Blue Dahlia" 3 years before, with mesmerizing narration as we watch a prostitute (lovely Black actress Charlie Angel) servicing a john (James Bonn) and pouring out her life's story. This MOS sequence with mysterious music playing is resolved when after the money shot we see her on a couch at her shrink's office, a patient. Closeup of her file identifies "Nikki Starr", profession: "Actress (prostitute)", a telling reveal that sets up the rest of Avalon's film as well as not-too-subtly raising that age-old question that continues to linger in my mind: is XXX film performing actually a form of prostitution?
Her shrink, in handsome business suit, is glamorous gonzo star Alexa Rae. The session is interrupted when a director yells "Cut" and we see this office is just a movie set, and the director (Herschel Savage) blows his top at some problem with the production. Alexa complains vigorously, wondering why these people have invaded her office, and what's going on here? She appears to be under the delusion that she's really the psychiatrist, her film role, and that Charlie as Nikki is really her patient.
The fast-paced feature at this point goes into first gear, but Avalon is careful to leave open just a glimmer of a possibility ("Twilght Zone" time) that despite all the evidence presented to us to the contrary, perhaps Alexa as Dr. Emily Brackenbush is lucid and everyone else is wrong about what constitutes reality. This is a wonderful subject for a film, and Avalon never drops the ball as he juggles the parallel world he's created.
In one of his best character roles (and quite refreshing compared to so many latter-day pointless appearances), Ron Jeremy co-stars as the gung-ho agent who must deal with Alexa's breakdown in the middle of a shoot. He assures Savage he will handle it, and takes Alexa to the mansion (fictional address in the script) she claims is her home, to prove to her that she's hallucinating or something.
They arrive and Evan Stone is there humping a young actress who is auditioning for him - he's a big porno producer. Turns out that Alexa is imagining this sex scene too, for when it's over, Evan sees her and gets angry, since she was his recent live-in girlfriend who told him off and left some time ago. So Alexa was right about this being her address, but the details remain ambiguous, as she was Alexa the actress living there with this producer.
Meanwhile back on the set, an actress (tall & willowy Cheyenne Silver) has been sent over to play the role of Dr. Brackenbush's secretary, and director Savage auditions her in time-honored fashion, humping her in the prop room.
Ron takes Alexa to his office and tries to jog her memory concerning her forgotten career as a porno actress. She does have feelings of deja vu and brief memory flashes, as he shows her one of his videos he made as a successful gonzo director. We see a hot lesbians scene starring Bridgette Kerkove and Tina Cherry with Ron himself joining in for a 3-some. Alexa remembers a three-way in his office with two porno studs, and it sure looks like she's Alexa the star not the doc.
There are several more twists and turns, leading to a finale that is brilliantly staged. Alexa has returned to the porn set and seems to fall asleep at the desk. They're filming another scene with Charlie as her patient and now Cheyenne is the secretary, and it's left open-ended whether in fact she is the doctor for real (the stuff about being Alexa the porn actress being just a nightmare) or we were correct all along in assuming she's been acting crazy.
The best ending like that is from an unjustly ultra-obscure film I have loved for many years, Hugo Haas's 1954 "The Other Woman" about a perfect crime. Avalon, like Haas, deserves more recognition as a highly personal and adventurous filmmaker working in a genre not treated with even a modicum of respect or seriousness (even the Adult industry awards are calibrated to just a "hot sex scene" mentality).