Going by just about any porno-aesthetic yardstick one can fathom, John Stagliano's ambitious, scalding, kink-drenched, epic-like, 4 1/2-hour long The Fashionistas arguably is the best adult film of the year. Clearly the pinnacle of Stagliano's illustrious career, The Fashionistas, is the finest hardcore-meets-BDSM story-oriented porn production ever (Femmes de Sade from 1976 is a classic, but primitive by Fashionistas standards). It pretty much nails that dark sub-culture right on the head, its sizzling, beautifully shot and produced sex scenes ringing with that ever-elusive fetish authenticity. While many adult consumers have little use for that quaint little anachronism known as story-driven porn, Stagliano has penned a script here that is actually, you know, compelling and from which the sex naturally flows. It's not inconceivable that even solo strokers will watch all 276 minutes of The Fashionistas without once hitting the fast-forward button. For those of you who actually care about such things, The Fashionistas is set in the downtown Los Angeles fashion district where The Fashionistas, an up-and-coming fetish fashion design group led by gorgeous, highly-manipulative super-bitch Helena (Taylor St. Claire) is trying to land a deal with the world heavyweight champ of fetish fashion, Antonio (Rocco Siffredi), visiting El Lay on business from Italy St. Claire's crew tries to catch Siffredi's eye through such guerilla theater tactics as - in the terrific opening sequence - crashing his fashion show and terrorizing his white bread models. While St. Claire wants Siffredi to believe that she's the brains of the operation, The Fashionistas' real creative force is St. Claire's assistant, Jesse (Belladonna). The balance of the plot has the three principals performing a dance of lust, treachery and ultimately love played out against the backdrop of seriously kinky sex which is enhanced by top-of-the-line fetish fashions from real Los Angeles designer Syren (no cheap shit from the corner stroke store, the province of most hardcore-meets-fetish productions).The performances, for a porn tape, are uniformly first-rate, as are the production values. But certain Porn Valley directors with mainstream ambitions notwithstanding, the most important element of any adult tape is the - to state the obvious - sex, and The Fashionistas is no exception. Being a Stagliano production, said sex is, of course hard-edged (especially within the S/M context, which gives Buttman a perfect excuse to indulge his ass worship obsession big time) and demonstrates that just because a tape is a feature, the fucking doesn't have to be safe and vanilla. In a word, it scalds. Spitting, choking, face slapping, rimming, cum-eating, etc., abound. Production-wise, each sex scene - be it a coupling or a group grope - is painstakingly conceived and gorgeously executed, structurally unfolding without a cliched, cookie-cutter moment in the lot. If there's a hotter, more inspired display of fucking in any other film this year, one that is suitable for both rain coaters as well as more adventuresome couples and women, well, you be sure to let us know. The Fashionistas received well-deserved nominations for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Siffredi), Best Supporting Actor (Manuel Ferrera), Best Actress (St. Claire), Best Supporting Actress (Belladonna, Caroline Pierce), Best Tease Performance (Belladonna; Chelsea Blue, Gia & St. Claire), Best Box Cover Concept, Best All-Girl Sex Scene (Belladonna & St. Claire), Best Anal Sex Scene (Kate Frost & Siffredi), Best Oral Sex Scene (Belladonna & Siffredi; Belladonna, Mark Ashley & Billy Glide), Best Sex Scene Coupling (Pierce & Ferrera; St. Claire & Siffredi), Best Group Sex Scene (Friday, St. Claire, Sharon Wild & Siffredi), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Music. |
