Though the credits include "adapted from a screenplay by Cash Markman", he being author of 1,000 or more lousy scripts, "Heroin" emerges as a quality Adult Feature, the credit clearly going to writer-director Mike Raven. Ostensibly a vehicle for Wicked Pictures star Sydnee Steele, it rises above that status to stand "the test of time" (sorry about that cliché) holding up well 15 years later.
Brad Armstrong, probably learning on the job a lot about directing from Raven, stars as a hot-shot ad executive, sort of a 21st Century Don Draper. He soon learns, the hard way, all about life and values when he meets Heroin (Sydnee Steele) at a party thrown by his smarmy yet insightful boss Jonathan Morgan, most effective in a NonSex Role.
Brad is happily married to luscious Keri Windsor, though lacking in empathy for her or anyone but himself. The actor pulls off the smug role quite skilfully, unafraid to appear unsympathetic on screen and contributing mightily to the feature's success by not pulling any "star turn" punches.
What makes this familiar tale of comeuppance work is the consistency of Steele's performance, and I mean her acting, not her given prowess in delivering hot XXX content. Over the decades I have become inured to the conventional wisdom that porn people can't act, and the condescending attitude both critics and fans take toward their attempts at same, more or less considering talent as "models" who should stick to humping and leave emoting to De Niro and Streep. However, Steele's no frills but highly effective creation of the character Heroin here could serve many a mainstream over-acting diva well to watch and learn from.
With highly entertaining repartee, she immediately dominates Brad both conversationally and physically, forcing him to keep up with her risk- taking and utterly free attitude, much to his peril. By the time he learns some simple truths at film's end, Brad has been run through the ringer.
With basically those four central characters all doing a great job, Raven surrounds them for XXX content purposes with a bevy of beauties, ranging from stunning Lezley Zen in only her second screen role (following, she says in the BTS short subject a debut in Wicked's "Serenity's Roman Orgy" directed by Morgan) to Avy Scott, Violet Blue and Sunrise Adams, of whom only Violet gets a word in edgewise, verbally speaking.
Raven's technical team, right down to producer Scott Justice, is identical to his ensemble at Sin City Entertainment, which in a blindfold test I would have ascribed this production, rather than Wicked. In the Golden Age factory days of Hollywood this would have been known as a loan-out, with Sydnee assigned to Sin City for a picture by Wicked, perhaps as punishment, but in any case yielding wonderful results.
