I have all of Stormy's videos as director at home on the shelf, watching them at suitable intervals (I like to mix it up), and this new one is quite interesting in charting her progress as filmmaker. Well on her way to becoming the most successful superstar actress turned director in Adult Cinema history, she appeals to me for being unpretentious -working in familiar genres with just a dab of departing from tried & true content.
One bit of welcome sublimation is that even though Stormy made her fame and fortune via her fabulously big breasts, following in the footsteps of such superstars as Jenna Jameson, she casts relatively flat-chested females in the leading roles here, befitting a contemporary story in a society where (perhaps with the exception of Jennifer Lawrence) iconic beauty has veered markedly towards the "young and natural" look.
Keira Nicole (my preferred choice of her stage names) stars as an effervescent young girl embarking on a bright future with boyfriend Seth Gamble, who's just moved them to a new town to begin his career as a lawyer. While ostensibly house- hunting they stay with Seth's childhood friend Small Hands, an odd performer with an odd moniker, who started his career humping for filmmaker Joanna Angel, proof of which is in his sporting an extremely tattooed body, even overmuch by current standards.
Besides his big dick, handy in a XXX video, Hands fits Stormy's script as front man for a rock band, and lip syncs his way through two musical performances that give "Off Limits" some real movie relevance, perhaps in the manner of Michael Winterbottom's horrible cross-over experiment "9 Songs" of a decade ago.
Title of the film refers to an admonition, made explicitly by different characters at different times in the story, that it would be wrong for best buddy Small to have sex with Seth's girl Nicole. That is obviously true in any dramatic or romantic context and is the crux of the conflict developed here.
The romantic ups and downs of the cast are pretty cornball, but Stormy has some interesting wrinkles on the rom-com format which (as I often mention in reviews of her work) might merit viewing of her films by mainstreamers. Not to ripoff but as inspiration, the reverse of porn's endless craze for ripping off (they call it "parody" to avoid legal action) real movies.
Along the way other beauties and their sex lives are knitted into the narrative, chiefly Krissy Lynn (big breasts but hardly in Stormy's range) as a hyperactive groupie, Cassidy Klein as Keira's winsome sister and Dahlia Sky, always a lovely presence as the girlfriend of the group's drummer Brendon Miller. The ugly mug of Miller is present in most of Stormy's movies, perhaps as her good luck charm, and much as I'm not a fan of his I have to concede that he delivers a well-acted supporting performance.
Gamble, who often gets the George Brent sort of porn roles opposite strong women, is okay as the non-hero, and overall the film lacks the oomph that would make it a must-see. With tons of story and rich characterizations Stormy has clearly positioned it for eventual use in soft-X edited version for Showtime After Hours cable-TV exposure, where I suspect it will find its audience. I won't give away the ending (with production assistant Jack Vegas popping up for a cameo), but it defies the rules of the rom-com genre and was very fresh and very thoughtful to watch - a pleasant surprise. Like Jack, Stormy has a cameo as another groupie, apparently proving older groupies are still out there.
One bit of welcome sublimation is that even though Stormy made her fame and fortune via her fabulously big breasts, following in the footsteps of such superstars as Jenna Jameson, she casts relatively flat-chested females in the leading roles here, befitting a contemporary story in a society where (perhaps with the exception of Jennifer Lawrence) iconic beauty has veered markedly towards the "young and natural" look.
Keira Nicole (my preferred choice of her stage names) stars as an effervescent young girl embarking on a bright future with boyfriend Seth Gamble, who's just moved them to a new town to begin his career as a lawyer. While ostensibly house- hunting they stay with Seth's childhood friend Small Hands, an odd performer with an odd moniker, who started his career humping for filmmaker Joanna Angel, proof of which is in his sporting an extremely tattooed body, even overmuch by current standards.
Besides his big dick, handy in a XXX video, Hands fits Stormy's script as front man for a rock band, and lip syncs his way through two musical performances that give "Off Limits" some real movie relevance, perhaps in the manner of Michael Winterbottom's horrible cross-over experiment "9 Songs" of a decade ago.
Title of the film refers to an admonition, made explicitly by different characters at different times in the story, that it would be wrong for best buddy Small to have sex with Seth's girl Nicole. That is obviously true in any dramatic or romantic context and is the crux of the conflict developed here.
The romantic ups and downs of the cast are pretty cornball, but Stormy has some interesting wrinkles on the rom-com format which (as I often mention in reviews of her work) might merit viewing of her films by mainstreamers. Not to ripoff but as inspiration, the reverse of porn's endless craze for ripping off (they call it "parody" to avoid legal action) real movies.
Along the way other beauties and their sex lives are knitted into the narrative, chiefly Krissy Lynn (big breasts but hardly in Stormy's range) as a hyperactive groupie, Cassidy Klein as Keira's winsome sister and Dahlia Sky, always a lovely presence as the girlfriend of the group's drummer Brendon Miller. The ugly mug of Miller is present in most of Stormy's movies, perhaps as her good luck charm, and much as I'm not a fan of his I have to concede that he delivers a well-acted supporting performance.
Gamble, who often gets the George Brent sort of porn roles opposite strong women, is okay as the non-hero, and overall the film lacks the oomph that would make it a must-see. With tons of story and rich characterizations Stormy has clearly positioned it for eventual use in soft-X edited version for Showtime After Hours cable-TV exposure, where I suspect it will find its audience. I won't give away the ending (with production assistant Jack Vegas popping up for a cameo), but it defies the rules of the rom-com genre and was very fresh and very thoughtful to watch - a pleasant surprise. Like Jack, Stormy has a cameo as another groupie, apparently proving older groupies are still out there.