Shades of Romona

Vivid Entertainment briefly had a division called Vivid-alt in a vain attempt to court younger porn viewers with hip or merely trendy (think lots of tattoos) content, but eventually this market went to the freebie-generation accessing zero cost porn via the internet. Adam & Eve Pictures likewise marketed such product under the banner "Independent Adult Cinema", and this Ava Rose-starrer is a representative, but lousy, example.

It is pretentious but doesn't deliver much of anything, right from the opening scene where vBlogger Dr. Romona (Ava Rose, an A & E contract actress) tells us about her invention of a Virtual Vacation Machine that permits clients to live out their fantasies in a virtual reality mode. Her initial exposition is almost completely drowned out by loud rock music, the first of 18 songs, count 'em, on the soundtrack of this misguided project.

So we get six sex vignettes introduced by Ava, with her participating in a couple of course. The sets are beyond cheap & crummy -they are embarrassing, such as aluminum foil covering a wall to be modernistic. The sex is poorly done though the name cast mechanically goes through the expected XXX positions, with poor Annabelle Lee treated the worst in a bondage/fetish solo, tied up in white bandage type trappings, with poor body makeup and unappetizing closeups of her groin masturbating.

Superstar (of Wicked Pictures in her near future) Alektra Blue has a lesbian scene with alt-actress Mandy Morbid after Mandy bores us with a solo turn; Sasha Grey (who gets top billing in the opening credits only) gives horribly monotone line readings in the unbelievably bad first sex scene opposite a pompous Tony DeSergio, supposedly debating war & peace in a misjudged and ineptly directed/perform scene that sets the tone for the rest of the clunky film.

Joey Brass, a performer I like a great deal, especially in preference to his same-type but far more successful counterpart Tommy Pistol (a dislikable performer) has two sex scenes as filler, one a three-way with the untalented Love Twins.

Picture ends with Ava admonishing the viewer: "Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors to you where there were walls", nonsensical New Age b.s., but perhaps ironically relevant once Trump gets impeached and we can sort of get back to normalcy.