The Mentor

One of Nica Noelle's 4-character movies, "The Mentor" succeeds with a simple, direct approach, in which the drama is carried by stern glances rather than overacting or sturm und drang scenes.

She hedges her bets for the fans by including two Oiler scenes, concerning live-in "masseuse" Tony (Brogan Reed), who services both his client/lover played by Rodney Steele (the best actor in Nica's troupe) and Steele's young boyfriend Joey (star Calvin Banks). I was annoyed that Nica's screenplay made the same mistake I've seen in a dozen other porn videos of calling a male massage therapist a masseuse instead of the correct masseur term -even the lowly Brazzers label has a successful series "Dirty Masseur" capitalizing on calling a spade a spade.

Minor story line concerns the month-old love affair between Joey and Noah (newcomer Jackson Cooper), latter having had a painful break-up a year earlier when an older man he was in love with suddenly split. They go to visit Joey's older friend (Rodney Steele) and there's a moment of shock when Noah sees the fellow is his ex-lover who went by the name Karl.

Noelle errs again by having the guy's name called clearly by Joey as Dan early in the film, but later in his massage scene with Tony he twice refers to his mentor as James instead. Very sloppy.

Other than an effective wintry stroll by Dan/James/Karl with Joey and Noah on the shores of a wintry New England lake, shot S.O.L.I. style, the claustrophobic saga is close to all-sex, with a few brief dialog exchanges thrown in. Predictable climax and open ending adhere to Noelle's usual m.o.

The Gay sex scenes are okay, with Steele and Banks performing as tops throughout.