Sordid

Beneath the inappropriate title lies a mysterious Vivid Video release of yesteryear which I only discovered now, over two decades late. It received 9 industry award nominations yet is virtually unknown today, and was rather adventurous for its time. Is the presence of condoms the reason recent audiences have zero interest in it? Is it the fact that director Paul Thomas made literally hundreds (no exaggeration) of interesting movies over the years, and this is one of many lost in the shuffle? Does the lack of no lingering fan club for star Cassidey (unlike so many Vivid superstars like Christy Canyon, Janine and Raylene) doom it to obscurity? And why was a movie shot on film in 2000 but not released at all until 2003 left on the shelf so long? And why did Paul Thomas put his fake name "Cleo Edwards" (often assigned to inferior product) on the credits as producer and director?

It's a rather innovative Couples movie, not exactly avant-garde but quite adventurous for an Adult feature. It's told strictly from the point-of-view of male lead Dale DaBone, with his voiceover narration making it quite clear that he is a self-centered misogynist, spoutin all sorts of backward theories about women, typified by his freewheeling approach to sex, but insistence that it's important that he left to himself to have breakfast alone, unencumbered by the presence of some female.

This voice-over assertion pays off later in the show when he wakes up with Cassidey still hanging around the morning after their supposed one-night-stand, and she's in the kitchen making him breakfast, to boot! His barely disguised anger at this turn of events is a sublime build-up to the movie's eventual climax of role-reversal, as she becomes the center of attention and has taken over his life by film's end, much to powerless Dale's dismay.

Along the way there are other beauties to captivate the viewer's attention, including Taylor St. Claire as co-star Eric Price's girlfriend, the most assertive female character in the show, the underrated Wendy Divine as a very hot member of a threesome including DaBone and a lovely blonde named Egypt, and in what amounts to a brief sex role for Ryan Conner, still going strong over two decades after this was shot.

But it's really a showcase for Cassidey, an uninhibited force of nature who was a big star but only briefly. PT leaves out much of the backstory, ending scenes with a freeze frame turning into a black & white Polaroid-style snapshot, adding quite a bit of mystery to a story that might have been handled more conventionally -certainly by a more conventional helmer than he.