Roommates

Hardly a household name, statuesque Ariane Bellamar had 15 minutes of fame a few years back when she alleged being sexually harassed by Jeremy Piven on the set of his hit show "Entourage". But for porn fans she's a one-shot wonder, amazingly sexy starring in this forgotten Paul Thomas movie for Vivid Video made when she was a 20-year-old brunette bombshell.

I watched the video with some trepidation, as PT had stolen the title of Chuck Vincent's breakthrough crossover movie of that title from 1983, a movie he would definitely know. But my interest was piqued as it represents a very early collaboration by PT with a former crew member David Stanley, who was launching a successful career as screenwriter, later director of many an idiosyncratic movie for Vivid and later Wicked.

Unusual movie has more Stanley than Thomas in its signature strangeness, with contrasting plot elements and a subversive point-of-view, beyond the requisite plenty of XXX footage.

It opens with porn matinee idol Julian cast in a very different role for him: addressing the camera directly full of grievance, as he declares his intention to revenge an incident that left him (a football hero) lame from a motorcycle crash, caused by a trio of co-eds. To this end he's arranged a 10-year reunion of his high school class. Sounds like a horror movie plot from writer Stanley, but not exactly.

Julian works at a roller rink with pal Devin Wolf, a mama's boy who he likes to pick on. Stanley works into the stew an oddball subplot concerning Wolf, his addiction to masturbation and hobby as a photographer, one of many offbeat elements in the movie.

Highly erotic sexual flashbacks dating back to the high school days feature the 3 girls targeted by Julian: Euro beauty Veronica Stark as Amy, a famous model whose arrogance makes her an unsympathetic character; Shelly Jones as Carol, lesbian of the trio, and Stephanie Dahl (aka Ariane Bellamar) as Betty, a zoftig brunette, since married to Danny (played by an obscure actor billed as Adam Bomb).

Stanley has plenty of black humor embedded in the ostensible thriller story line, notably revolving around Amy's ostensible role model as a formerly overweight kid who gives positive advice to girls to embrace their appearance, while she's shown weight-shaming a fan in person. Julian's relationship to Wolf is bumpy as well, with cruelty part of Julian's constant grievance mentality (sound familiar, politics fans out there?).

There's plenty of conflict here amidst the strong outbursts of sexuality, leading up to a violent climax (that takes place off-screen, not mixing explicit violence with the movie's central explicit sex). Finale involving Julian is about as irreverent to genre fans as Stanley and Thomas can conjure up.

What is most unusual about this Vivid release is that it consciously sidesteps PT's great successes around this time piloting Vivid's roster of superstars (recall: Asia Carrera, Taylor Hayes, Kobe Tai, Janine Lindemulder, Raquel Darrian, Dyanna Lauren and Savanna Samson). All three leading ladies starring here had the briefest of film/video careers.

Specifically, Stephanie Dahl, better known as Ariane Bellamar. At her first appearance early in the movie I was shocked: she is (circa 1999) the living embodiment of those outrageously drawn hentai animated girls that populate Adult sex games on the internet -the type that pop up in nearly any XXX search accompanying copy to the tune of "Bet you can't last 30 seconds" variety. In fact, I had just watched serge3dx's recent short "MILF's Needs" whose heroine seems copied after (with exaggeration of course) Ariane's physique and even pretty face.

So here, courtesy of Paul Thomas, is a chance to see an actress's only venture into the XXX realm, giving a memorable performance.