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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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3
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7 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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SNEAK
PREVIEW
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DVD Release Date: Feb.
21, 2006 |
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A
magic film projector
casts a spell of insatiable lesbian lust over
two sexy young roommates...
And that's
pretty much all there is to Curious
Obsessions. I mean literally. There
are about six lines of dialog tops, likely improvised.
(How else to explain why Jackie Stevens keeps
referring to the film reels as "tapes"?) The remainder
of the 77-minute movie is consumed by either the
girls' softcore sapphic romps or the film clips
that inexplicably turn them on.
The roomies (Stevens and Bethany Lott —
I don't believe their characters are given names)
receive a package in the mail containing an old
projector and reels of film. They have no idea
who sent it to them or why. Spooling up the film,
the ladies discover it to be comprised of old
"nudie loops" from the 1960s, the kind the raincoat
crowd would watch for a quarter in those sticky
42nd Street peepshow booths in the days before
home video killed walk-in porn. The clips show
women (singly for the most part) in various types
of undergarments slowly undressing and fondling
themselves. About two minutes into the first loop
Jackie starts getting hot and bothered and soon
has a receptive Bethany eating out of her... hand.
Afterwards the girls don't even have to watch
the show to get all fired up; whether together
or alone they just can't keep their hands off
each other or themselves. The mysterious projector
now has a life of its own, starting up all by
itself — and it never
seems to run out of film.
As
such, Curious Obsessions
doesn't really have any plot at all, much less
a middle or end. It's merely an extended, skillfully
edited music video, cutting back and forth between
the loops and the gals' softcore gropings and
set to the eclectic music of The Ubangis and The
Pink Delicates. (A number of the tracks are quite
good; a soundtrack CD would be fab.) Director
John Bacchus does a commendable job with Lott
and Stevens' sex scenes, employing a modicum of
unobtrusive video effects (color saturation, soft
focus, split screen, etc.) to give them a languid
erotic vibe. They stand in stark contrast to the
harsh cinéma verité of the crudely filmed
loops, which sometimes feature up-close-and-personal
gynecological shots of the kind you might see
in a Jess Franco sex flick from the '70s —
and which could never, ever be shown on Cinemax.
Incorporating
them within the framework of a modern story (microscopically
threadbare as it is) is actually a clever means
of utilizing these old loops, which would make
for tedious viewing had they simply been compiled
on a disc in their original form. Taken on their
own, for the most part they'd just be too downright
scary... The preponderance of beehive hairdos,
undulating cellulite and very hirsute nether
regions will probably leave many viewers grimacing
— it's uncomfortably
akin to stumbling across ancient dirty home movies
of one's mom or (God forbid!) grandmother. (To
be fair, a few of the Loop Girls are genuinely
attractive, such as the lasses with a 'hippy chick'
look to them and a pair of buxom, short-haired
blondes.) Thankfully the lion's share of the running
time is devoted to Seduction Cinema actresses
Lott and Stevens. Tattooed and pierced, the
willowy Bethany Lott
resembles singer Fiona Apple and should appeal
to devotees of the "Suicide Girl" aesthetic. Newcomer
Jackie Stevens, with her long dark mane and lusciously
curvaceous derriére, is enthusiastic in
the sex scenes and makes a notable debut here.
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The latest direct-to-video
Seduction Cinema release, the Curious
Obsessions DVD is
visually and aurally pleasing. As mentioned, the
movie does a fine job of integrating the different
film sources, so while the '60s loop segments
exhibit some print damage this only contributes
to the stylized look of the picture
and its music video ambiance. The soundtrack music
by the Ubangis and The Pink Delicates —
and what little dialog and
sound effects there are — sounds
great.
Extras: In addition
to the ubiquitous Seduction/Retro-Seduction Cinema
trailer vault, two brief featurettes and a deleted
scene are included. In The Genesis of
Curious Obsessions (4 minutes), E.I. chief
Michael Raso gives a quick overview of the concept
of the film, namely how to get the best commercial
use out of the old nudie loops he'd acquired.
The aptly-named Behind The Scenes (5½
min.) provides a glimpse of director Bacchus working
with Lott and Stevens to choreograph their sex
sequences; considering this was her very first
movie role, Stevens is obviously quite comfortable
working in the buff and making out with another
woman. (She also appears in Bacchus' Lust
In Space, which was shot immediately thereafter.)
The ten-minute deleted scene included on the disc
isn't actually from Curious
Obsessions, but rather the 2003 spoof Spider-Babe.
If features Bethany Lott in a rare hetero sex
session (90% of E.I. films are strictly girl-on-girl
action).
2/06/06
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