Fashionistas, The Review
Evil Angel
Studio: Evil Angel
Category: Feature film , Fetish
Directed by: John Stagliano
Starring: Billy Glide, Tricia Devereaux, Brandon Iron, Raven, Caroline Pierce, Ruby Richards, Taylor St. Clair, Rocco Siffredi, Mike, Monique, Shyla, Paula, Gia, Chelsea Blue, Kiva, Belladonna, Emma, Kate Frost, Sharon Wild, Friday, Manuel Ferrara, Mark Ashley, Casee, Kane, Della K. Cherry, Suz EQ, Nadja Lee, Nicole Love, Lydia Lynn, Ms. September, Jamie Riley, Vixen Sweet, Nicole Woodward, Mark Catawia, Phoen X Griffin, Scott Hislop, David Land
Released on: 1/6/2003
|
|
||||||||||||||||
| The Fashionistas (2002) | |||||||
|
Studio
|
What's It About?: I'm actually not going to do a blow-by-blow plot or sex summary in this review, partly because I don't think anyone wants to read a blow-by-blow review of a 4+ hour long movie spread across three DVDs, and partly because there are some really detailed reviews on this movie that have done a better job at that than I could ever do (read other reviews of The Fashionistas). The Fashionistas is an BDSM feature film (yes, shot on 35mm film) that breaks the stereotype of Evil Angel, and specifically of John Stagliano, only producing gonzo porn. This is a high-budget, glossy, and extremely intense plot-based feature that is arguably the best and most polished fetish film ever made. I don't say that lightly: while the movie has its share of flaws, I've never seen any adult feature with the intensity, production value, and cast, especially one that unapologetically stays true to its genre. As a word of warning, it is very, very important to understand that The Fashionistas is not for the faint of heart. The box cover says that it's not for the "novice porno viewer," and I would even expand to warn that it's not for a lot of porno viewers, given the movie's content. Even I found it to be distasteful and disturbing at times. Quite a number of the acts fall into my personal dislikes. But despite that, there's no question that the sex depicted are not only consensual, but enthusiastically performed. So, what's it about? In a nutshell, it's the story of an Italian fashion designer named Antonio (played by Rocco Siffredi) who comes to Los Angeles to re-invent his image by finding fetish clothing designs to add to his collection. There, he is courted by Fashionista, a company that's intent on gaining his business . . . by any means. Real-life dominant Taylor St. Clair is the owner of Fashionistas, who directs her employees to seduce Antonio, while setting her sights on him as well. But what she doesn't count on is the company's shy DVD editor, Jesse (Belladonna), also has fallen for Rocco. We discover that the video promo DVD that Jesse creates hides a secret that takes the cast from the L.A. Fashion District to the back room sex clubs of the underground. In the process, we viewers are witness to some really kinky and intense sex that's wrapped liberally in latex and secured with chains. So what about the sex? Like I said, I'm not going to go into the details of the scenes, so I'll speak generally, and then I'll touch on a few moments that I thought were really hot. The sex runs about the entire gamut of hardcore, from anal to voyeurism (see the left sidebar for a list of the major themes). Off the top of my head, perhaps the only "borderline" acts not included are fisting and watersports. The cast is led by a trio of performers who have made a name for themselves as intense and sexually agressive performers: Rocco Siffredi, Belladonna, and Taylor St. Clair. The Fashionistas takes full advantage of their talent for being dominant and being dominated. It's amazing to see what happens when someone not only is willing to push the envelope but wants to go beyond it. Some of the hotter moments in the movie: Kate Frost in and out of her gray latex bodysuit, Rocco reverse piledriving Kate, Belladonna's solo striptease, Bella with perhaps the largest acrylic dildo I've ever seen in her ass, Rocco and Taylor in a sweaty, animalistic encounter, Tricia Devereaux getting shocked with an spark toy, Caroline Pierce frantically sucking Manuel Ferrara's cock, Bella and Rocco in an almost impossible 69 position, and the final, torrid buttfucking scene with Bella and Rocco. Even though I didn't care for the rough sex and some of the fetish elements of the movie, the highlights I've just mentioned put 99 percent of all porn flicks to shame. What I liked: Hot, nasty, intense sex: Every single scene is performed with absolute fervor -- the chemistry is definitely there. Often, as a viewer, you wonder whether the performers are just acting or whether they really enjoy what they're doing. After watching The Fashionistas, there's no question in my mind that the sex is as genuine as it gets. It's also worth noting that the women in this movie are more sexually aggressive and ravenous than then men. Production value, production value, production value: Buttman spared no expense with this movie, from the limo shots, to the sets, to the prop DVDs and magazine used in the film, to the awesome fetish costumes (I especially loved the Chameleons costumes -- hot!). These elements give an unprecedented richness that one has never expected from adult movies. The Music - It's a bona fide motion picture soundtrack, and it's included on a CD! The soundtrack rocks and fits perfectly with the story and the sex. Check out the DVD Extras section of this review for my complete thoughts on the music, along with brief samples of the songs. Kudos for John for buying the rights to these great songs! What I didn't like: Not my cup of tea - While I'm all for the kinky sex and balls-to-the-wall fucking, I'm not a fan of the latex hoods, face fucking, slapping, dick slapping, male rimming, smothering, gagging deep throat, toe sucking, choking, nipple or pussy torture, and humiliation that makes up a lot of film. Of course, it's all consensual and enthusiastically performed, but I consider these things to be instant turn-offs or at the very least not exciting. Could have been edited tighter - The good news is that the sex scenes are quite long and plentiful. The bad news is that they are too long. It got pretty repetitive for me to watch pretty much the same action for minutes on end. Toward the end of the movie, I found myself fast-forwarding through parts of the scenes when the action got repetitive (not necessarily boring, but you can only take so much of the same thing). It may sound funny to hear me say this, but if the sex was edited down, then there would have been more time for character development or the marathon running-time could have been trimmed. It's not a knock against John and Tricia (who won Best Editing for this movie), it's just that there's just too much for my somewhat short attention span. No anamorphic widescreen - I've heard that John prefers full-frame, but it really would have brought this feature closer to perfection to have presented it anamorphically, especially since it was shot on film and since more and more people are getting widescreen TVs. "Nasty . . . Nasty!" - It might actually be a fun drinking game to down a shot every time that Rocco says "Nasty!" during sex. He's no Casanova when it comes to dirty talk, and hearing him say that over and over just gets on my nerves.
DVD Extras: Tricia Devereaux has put together a huge amount of supplementals for this DVD (or rather "DVDs" since there are actually three dual layer discs). Evil Angel is sure to win for best DVD in the next AVN awards with this very professional, high-quality, and feature rich treatment. At first glance, especially if you pop in the first disc, there doesn't appear to be very many features, but that's because all three DVDs have extras on them, and the major ones are on the third disc. The first disc contains filmographies and profiles of the actresses, a complete cast list broken down by chapter, and an extended version of the opening fashion show. The major extra is the audio commentary with John Stagliano, Tricia Devereaux, Belladonna, and Taylor St. Clair. It's a fairly relaxed and informative commentary, recorded in a group setting. It's not the most technically sound commentary since the volume of the speakers varies throughout the commentary (a function of where the person is in relation to the microphone). There's also a puzzling gap in the commentary in a couple of places (the second audio track goes slient -- it would have been better to fade the production track in during the gap). Still, I found the technical production details very interesting and worth sitting through the entire movie a second time. On disc 2, along with the continuation of the audio commentary are 180 photos in four different galleries. The breakdown is as follows: 45 production stills (mostly hardcore), 62 promo stills (mostly softcore), 73 behind the scenes stills (mostly softcore), and 21 images in the design gallery. There's also a 12 minute photo shoots video showing a behind-the-scenes look at how the pretty girl and hardcore stills are taken. Disc 3 contains most of the extras, beginning with the Making of The Fashionistas documentary. It follows the behind the scenes happenings in chronological order of filming dates. I like the technique of showing behind the scenes video and then cutting to the actual filmed footage -- that provides a really good contrast between the media. The highlights of the nearly two-hour long documentary are: the incident where Kate Frost's teeth scrape Rocco's cock, some rather painful anal moments, and dialogue rehearsals where Rocco has a heck of a time enunciating the word "subconscious." Another neat feature involving the documentary is the creative chapter selection menu, which utilizes a calendar of the filming schedule that allows us not only to select a specific filming day but also to get an appreciation of the length of this particular project.. The second notable feature on disc 3 is the 45-minutes of Extra Sex outtakes that could not be included in the movie due to time constraints. The additional hardcore footage is fairly raw in some places, especially when you can hear John give the performers direction while they are having sex. The breakdown of the extra footage is: Taylor, Kate, and Rocco (6 min.); Belladonna and Star (4 min.); Belladonna and Taylor (11 min.); Sharon, Friday, Taylor, and Rocco (10 min.); Belladonna on stage (2 min.); the group sex scene in the back room (3 min.); Monique and Brandon, and Caroline and Manuel (4 min.); Taylor, Chelsea, Gia, and Rocco (2 min.); and finally Belladonna & Rocco (4 min.). Most of the content here is not much different than what's in the final product, but some action, such as Bella fucking Taylor with a face-mounted strap-on, exists only in these outtakes. One of the most useful features included on most Evil Angel DVDs is the Fetish Menu, which allows you to go directly to the sexual act you want. For some reason, the Fetish Menu is only available for the Extra Sex feature, not for the movie itself. Among the fetish choices are: Tits, pussy licking & rimming, male rimming, deep throat, toys, anal, smothering, spanking, and cumshots. Next, there's a 13-minute pre-production video showing casting auditions (for the acting, not the sex) and costume and film discussions. Most people will look forward to the blooper reel, consisting of nine minutes of outtakes, mostly of flubbed lines. Since film stock is expensive and a limited commodity, the camera doesn't roll much beyond "cut," which cuts down on the post-flub reactions from the cast and crew. There are a couple of funny moments (such as when Rocco nonchalantly says that he's getting a little head from Manuel) plus a couple of sex accidents (like, oops, wrong hole!). An inside joke on the set was the phrase, "You know ass?", so there's a 97-second compilation of people saying variations of that line. The third disc is rounded out by a biography of John Stagliano and the trailer for The Fashionistas.
But wait, there's more! One of my favorite extras is the included compact disc with the soundtrack of the movie. A mix of vocal and instrumentals in techno and alternative rock style, it's a perfect example of how porn music is returning to its roots. No longer are we stuck with the stereotypical synthesized porno beat and generic music. Instead, just like the features of the Golden Age, music is specifically written, commissioned, or chosen with the movie in mind. Not only does the soundtrack give The Fashionistas a distinctive identity, the individual songs match the mood of each scene. Whether it's "Models" that uses and elegant flute and drum prelude to match the opening of Antonio's fashion show, or the the seductive beat of "Empty" during Jesse's striptease, the music fits perfectly. It's something that you could play with your non-porn friends and they wouldn't be the wiser -- except they'll probably ask you where they can get their own copy! Finally, there are four Easter Eggs, or hidden extras, spread across the three DVDs. It's a nice touch, especially since the story used them as a major plot point. According to Tricia, the eggs were more of a last minute thing that the DVD author was able to insert just in time to make the release date. It would have been nice to have something a little more meaningful, such as an interview with Buttman or maybe a re-creation of Rocco's Easter Egg Hunt with the viewer being the protagonist. But I totally understand how much work went in to the DVD and the movie, so this falls into the "nice to have" category. Maybe save it for the 20th Anniversary Special Edition? A/V Quality: I'm usually impressed by the DVD quality of Evil Angel releases, but I think this is the cleanest disc they've produced yet. The picture in most places is stunning, with a definite filmed look. Fortunately, unlike many films transferred to DVD, the grain artifacts are kept to a minimum. This looks as good as most mainstream productions. This is no doubt due to the high bit rate afforded by spreading the movie itself across two DVD-9 discs, and placing most of the extras on its own dual-layer DVD. As I mentioned earlier, it's presented in full-frame aspect rather than widescreen. Although it would have been nice if the movie was widescreen to give it a richer feel, it works pretty well because Stagliano and Don Crane, the Director of Photography, framed the shots with full screen presentation in mind. The net result is a movie that looks like it was made for pay cable TV. Another thing missing from the DVD is a surround soundtrack. Instead, it's a Dolby 2.0 stereo track -- very good, mind you, but I can only imagine the possibilities with a 360 degree soundfield. It certainly would have enhanced the depth of the excellent soundtrack to place them in a separate field from the dialogue. Still, it's a top notch effort in both audio and video -- I'm just being nitpicky.
While I didn't enjoy all of the content and thought that some of the scenes ran too long, raw enthusiasm and charged sexual energy are evident in each and every sex scene. Although the plot is underdeveloped considering how long the movie is, I was captivated by the story and the obvious care that went into the production. I'm really glad that Evil Angel didn't rush the DVD production any more than they did -- the resulting collector's edition showcases this truly unique film and is going to be the DVD to beat in 2003. People may complain about the high street price, but if you are at all interested in BDSM, this is a must own at twice the price. Highly, highly recommended for the more advanced porn viewer.
|
||||||
Check Prices for Fashionistas, The
- Scene 1
- Scene 2
- Scene 3
- Scene 4
- Scene 5
- Scene 6
- Scene 7
- Scene 8
- Scene 9
- Scene 10
- Scene 11
- Scene 12
- Scene 13
- Scene 14
- Scene 15
- Scene 16
- Scene 17
- Scene 18
- Scene 19
- Scene 20
- Scene 21
- Scene 22
- Scene 23
- Scene 24
- Scene 25
- Scene 26
- Scene 27
- Scene 28
- Scene 29
- Scene 30
- Scene 31
- Scene 32
- Scene 33
- Scene 34
- Scene 35
- Scene 36
- Scene 37
- Scene 38
- Scene 39
- Scene 40
- Scene 41
- Scene 42
- Scene 43
- Scene 44
- Scene 45
The opinions expressed in this review of Fashionistas, The from Evil Angel are not necessarily the opinions of Adult DVD Talk. Adult DVD Talk provides a public forum for consumers to post their DVD reviews. Adult DVD Talk does not edit these reviews.