I enjoyed "Melt" as a thoroughly screwy porn film, and was rewarded by auteur David Stanley's over-the-top remarks in the BTS short subject attesting to his firm belief in a spirit world as depicted in the movie. If you believe in things that go bump in the night you're the target for this whacked-out story of folks who go hump in the night.
Julia Ann is even better than usual as a housewife dealing with grief after hubby Randy Spears dies in a plane crash. Same exact subject matter was given an entirely different porn treatment recently by Kay Brandt in her dud "Safe Landings", which shares one cast member (Marcus London) with "Melt". Julia Ann looks to aspiring shaman Evan Stone for help in reaching out to contact dead Spears, and the film moves into the realm of New Age mysticism, as writer-director Stanley explores several philosophical and spiritual subjects in a depth one could hardly expect in a porn movie. That puts "Melt" almost into the experimental film camp, and had it been shot and released 25 years or so earlier it would have been tagged an Undergroundl Film rather than porn.
Stanley shows up early in a party scene to chat with Spears and Stone and shows acting chops in the strangeness of his delivery, sort of a poor-man's Michael Keaton line of riffing. End credits were confusing as Stanley was called Glen in this party scene but a major character played by Marcus London is named Glen in the credits (Stanley's acting is uncredited).
Film goes off the deep end with crazy imagery (notably a mysterious fire-eating lady redhead played by Shannon Kelly), a psychedelic trip in the clouds sequence orchestrated by the apprentice shaman Stone and other extremely odd notions. Strangest of all is a pair of lesbian elves (pointy ears are the tipoff) making love in the clouds in which not fisting but rather foot-in-the-vagina sex is included for goofiness sake. I recently saw Stanley's disappointing new feature titled "Just the Two of Us" in which the theme was foot fetishism, so maybe David personally joins Randy Spears in this obsession. Well, it worked for Luis Bunuel.
It's all quite goofy but testament to Stanley's quirky talents. In my solipsistic view of movies, he's far more interesting than such current "experimental" luminaries (they are called that dreaded fake-word "visionaries") like David Lynch and Tim Burton, but unfortunately he couldn't get arrested in the mainstream of Hollywood so he toils in porn -giving a movie like "Melt" zero chance of achieving respectability or recognition, apart from the industry's meaningless awards.
Julia Ann is even better than usual as a housewife dealing with grief after hubby Randy Spears dies in a plane crash. Same exact subject matter was given an entirely different porn treatment recently by Kay Brandt in her dud "Safe Landings", which shares one cast member (Marcus London) with "Melt". Julia Ann looks to aspiring shaman Evan Stone for help in reaching out to contact dead Spears, and the film moves into the realm of New Age mysticism, as writer-director Stanley explores several philosophical and spiritual subjects in a depth one could hardly expect in a porn movie. That puts "Melt" almost into the experimental film camp, and had it been shot and released 25 years or so earlier it would have been tagged an Undergroundl Film rather than porn.
Stanley shows up early in a party scene to chat with Spears and Stone and shows acting chops in the strangeness of his delivery, sort of a poor-man's Michael Keaton line of riffing. End credits were confusing as Stanley was called Glen in this party scene but a major character played by Marcus London is named Glen in the credits (Stanley's acting is uncredited).
Film goes off the deep end with crazy imagery (notably a mysterious fire-eating lady redhead played by Shannon Kelly), a psychedelic trip in the clouds sequence orchestrated by the apprentice shaman Stone and other extremely odd notions. Strangest of all is a pair of lesbian elves (pointy ears are the tipoff) making love in the clouds in which not fisting but rather foot-in-the-vagina sex is included for goofiness sake. I recently saw Stanley's disappointing new feature titled "Just the Two of Us" in which the theme was foot fetishism, so maybe David personally joins Randy Spears in this obsession. Well, it worked for Luis Bunuel.
It's all quite goofy but testament to Stanley's quirky talents. In my solipsistic view of movies, he's far more interesting than such current "experimental" luminaries (they are called that dreaded fake-word "visionaries") like David Lynch and Tim Burton, but unfortunately he couldn't get arrested in the mainstream of Hollywood so he toils in porn -giving a movie like "Melt" zero chance of achieving respectability or recognition, apart from the industry's meaningless awards.