Filmmaker James Avalon's dry sense of humor is on display throughout this Wicked Pictures feature, providing something like a template for how directors can deal with porn's current all-sex bias.
In the 2-1/2 hour long feature, he makes fine use of the limited "story/character" portions of the show and manages to demonstrate their importance, especially to create a comedic result.
This all begins with casting Shawn Alff in the leading role, and actually giving him top billing over the sex performers, extremely unusual for a porn movie (especially now). He plays an ordinary guy, living in post-Apocalypse America. Avalon subtly hints at the outset, when Shawn returning home has to wear a ventilator face mask to go from his car to his lavish, modern house. Later on, there is a brief conversation scene where he tells how his parents moved from Brooklyn to "a habitable area on the West Coast" after the "Great Cleansing Event", and how they died of lung cancer due to them being anti-maskers, exposed to toxic radiation.
In that opening reel, following quite imaginative opening credits' design, he finds his wife Freya Parker in bed with his best friend (and former college roommate) Robby Echo/Apples. This scene sets the movie's comic tone, as Freya continues having sex as he watches, sitting there in the typical Cuckold Genre mode of porn.
Also extremely effective in a NonSex role is Scarlett Alexis, who voices Shawn's computer companion Vera, controlling everything in his smart home and being very personal (verbally) and protective of him. She is a key character in the story, though self-described as a "nonentity" (in the true definition of that term).
After reciting a partial list of Shawn's failure in his relationships with women, Vera suggests he try a matchmaker service offering androids. This takes him to PerfectMates (after viewing a very perceptive promo for the service) where Michael Vegas gives him the hard sell, offering three up-to-date models for him to try out with a "1000% guarantee". That 1000 instead of 100 should have been a red flag, but Shawn is desperate.
Two beauties Evelyn Claire and Melanie Marie flunk out when physically tested on try-out by Shawn but he has more success with the third model played by Kylie Rocket, in a segment where Avalon succeeds in delivering rom-com content worthy of a mainstream movie. Kylie's model has all the latest AI programming but no memory -she reacts to Shawn in conversation more humanly than the human women he's known, and eventually she's reduced to tears. This leads to a very interesting conclusion, once all the sex scenes have subsided, to a serious sci-fi movie.
Because Shawn is a writer and crew member in Adult Cinema but not a sex worker, Avalon's script manages to have pro studs handle his sex scenes, principally Wicked's contract man Seth Gamble whose body is "virtually" inhabited by Shawn for two XXX scenes.
"We Can Build Her" should give others a clue that there is a path in Adult Cinema beyond the Gonzo crap that is so dominant these days.
