Poison Angel

"Poison Angel" looks different (lighting, definition) and director Bud Lee shows us why in the useful BTS short subject, showing the project being shot on film rather than video which had become the standard mode in 2002. There were many prestige/big-budget Adult projects still being shot in 35mm, but this is a very minor and all but forgotten Sin City feature, making it unusual.

The format is surprisingly that of Kurosawa's all-time classic (and influential) "Rashomon", in which incidents are portrayed on screen from the differing points-of-view of various protagonists. Credit must go both to Lee and his screenwriter D. Cypher (usually a credit name inspiring fear and loathing in me after seeing so many clunkers of his) for fashioning such an interesting trifle for Sin City's biggie Michael Raven.

Sondra enters the picture departing a taxi as a college student coming to stay with old friend of the family T.J. Hart and T.J.'s hubby Dillon Day for the summer, before heading to a dorm in the fall. All three of them frequently address the camera (and viewer) directly in the manner of those Witnesses in Warren Beatty's epic "Reds", and Lee shows us the scenes acted out in accordance with whoever is speaking. They frequently contradict each other, and that's where the film's fun lies.

It's ultimately about fidelity and romance, but with Dillon portraying Sondra as a total troublemaker, while both she and T.J. take the opposite point-of-view. Most unusual is that the women, both competing for our her Dillon's sexual favors, remain bonded as friends throughout, giving the entire film an almost feminist POV, though the porn context doesn't really support that type of reading.

Most scenes are performed with safe-sex condoms, except for Lezley Zen as a prostitute in which she gets humped bareback. Monique Alexander, during her Girls Only early career phase, lends some heat to a threesome scene with Hall and Lee Stone, and Hart is especially impressive in the sack. But it's Sin City girl Sondra Hall, not very famous 20 years later, who is riveting, slightly reminiscent in looks of the great Janine, but not as pretty.