Adult Film Reviews

I once produced a small collection of adult film reviews for those who appreciate the cinematic art of contemporary adult film.

The content had nothing to do with pornography or pornographic film. More accurately, it featured a compilation of reviews of selected adult orientated films; as distinct to pornographic film. 

Adult film reviews you ask? Allow me to explain. It was a typically cold and wet day in 2002. There I was in bed marvelling at how thought impulses and consequently actions can be dictated by the activities of the groin. How powerful it is, that which we refer to as the libido. A blinding anatomical force that can ignite the most restful and content soul, given the right circumstances, the right stimuli; be it sight and/or sound and/or smell and/or touch. A force experienced by all us mortals and in my particular case, it shamelessly swept me into a course of action.

The stimulus to write my first film review, in this case Unfaithful, starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane, presented itself during a period of convalescence that cold and wet Saturday afternoon. There I was lying in bed, experiencing a moderate amount of lower abdominal pain following a short stay in hospital. Oh yes, the surgery had gone smoothly but until our medical fraternity learns how to switch pain off at the source we seek solace with the seemingly primitive and hopelessly un-localized pain management methods of our time. I refer, of course, to the usual cocktail of Paracetamol, Codeine Phosphate and Ibuprofen.  

But not even post-op pain can quell a human's spontaneous ability to be sexually aroused. As I brooded my sorry state, and in particular my inability to satisfy an escalating urge to deliberately fall into a state of complete concupiscence with a woman, I come across a radio film analysis whilst despondently scanning the AM frequencies for something to seize the attention. And so it did, I'm not sure whether it was Diane Lanes' background cries of ecstasy or the reviewers dialogue as he casually tossed around terms and phrases like "as he touched her you actually see the flesh vibrating", "juicy illicit passion", "an expressive account of a woman in mid-life, for the first time truly, madly deeply in lust". I am sure it was both. Within the hour I fire up the broadband and viewed a large high quality trailer download. In this instance, the scene on the passenger train as she re-lived a recent sexual encounter. And so came the spur to seek out the entire show and produce the review. In retrospect it was simply a case of the right stimuli at the right time, the fusing and total integration of two wavelengths, one of which rested in my mind...marketing practitioners rejoice. 

I could not have anticipated the positive feedback following the review and so, some months later, I decided to continue on with my new found vocation and review other films of the same genre; namely, adult orientated drama. 

I never referred to myself as a film reviewer or film critic per se. I did not have the established prerequisites normally associated with the profession - a journalistic background in addition to good knowledge of cinematic history, philosophy and relevant biographies. Nor was I educated in the annals of film arts and the critical theory of the medium. Accordingly, it is with respect that I put forward the term "reviews". I am, however, comfortable to refer to myself as a writer of sorts. 

The content presented brought together film reviews of a genre of interest to me at the time.

For mine a good film review will replay the experience the reviewer had upon viewing the film. This will be based on subjective preferences, feelings and emotions and it can say as much about the reviewer, the society which produced the analysis, and the current state of affairs under which the film was viewed, than about the actual motion picture. A logic which very much applies to me as anyone else. As Anais Nin would say: "We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are".

Generally speaking, the sensual elements of the featured films focus directly and indirectly on themes which incorporate evocative and erotic love scenes - sex. Fortunately, in the erotic context, the content is not in all cases explicit, or otherwise said, pornographic. 

Accordingly, and by design, I sought to distance the page content and framework from any connotations related to pornography or related overtones. Quite conversely, albeit subjectively, erotica is art as it deals with the more unambiguous elements of sex. The film subject matter is developed aesthetically, artistically and beautifully. Good adult cinema cultivates the characters, place, story and brings forth emotional content and thus viewer involvement. Enjoy!

Links below:

The Great Beauty and I Film Review by Otto Marasco

Brief Crossing Film Review by Otto Marasco

Eyes Wide Shut A Review by Otto Marasco

How the Internet is changing us

The Internet is revolutionizing the way we learn, communicate, meet, interact, do business, the way we spend our time, our sleep, in short, the way we live.

Its impact is far from having peaked and has futurists deliberating on exactly where it’s taking humanity. The networked online life has, in its relatively brief history provided unparalleled change of a revolutionary nature mostly benefiting humanity, but it’s not that simple.

We may multitask more but that does not necessarily mean more productivity nor smartness. Some would argue the Web is dumbing us down in our quest to seek instant answers to just about anything life throws at us. Consider how often young people use spare or “dead-time” compared to yesteryear. Read a book? Thankfully many still do, but many more prefer to surf aimlessly or otherwise immerse themselves in social media and its imaginary acquaintances commonly termed, online friends.

The simple impacts include the demise of telegrams, its influence on politics and political campaigns, it’s becoming our first port of call when sick, it’s giving many a form of false celebrity status, its killed phone books, road maps and relationships. Do wrist watches still serve any functional purpose? Will kitchens survive? Think Ubereats. Meeting people at bars, clubs or parks (imagine that) poof.  Music discovery has become a thing of the past, in its place algorithms in apps such as Spotify to curate the songs and genres you or they want you, to like. Entertainment in terms of television (remember that word?) and movies are available whenever and wherever we want.

The internet is having a homogenizing effect far greater than cheap airline travel and killing languages, consider that little of the world's 7000+ languages and dialects have migrated across to the web. Encyclopedias and reference books are out, even Britannica is out of print. Privacy is all but dead, try as you might to remain anonymous.

Recall the days when Web pages were nothing but a bunch of words with scattered hyperlinks? That was Web 1.0 seemingly a lifetime ago and yet Web 2.0, denoting websites that emphasize user-generated content, usability, and interoperability for end users, is only around 16-18 years old depending on your source. What will Web 3.0 bring? Is it already upon us? Some say yes. And what role will Artificial Intelligence play in its emergence?

Combined with globalization, the internet is already changing us not merely as individuals but in terms of cultural identity. Previously understood models of space, time and distance are being turned upside-down. Cultural globalization, for better or worse is upon us and raises an important question for humanity. Considering its profound influence, has the internet and all it encompasses become more than a technology? Will social science practitioners soon refer to it as a kind of cultural artifact that emerged in the late twentieth and early twenty first century?

In the face of rapid exponential adjustment, the perpetual fusion - immersion if you will - of a future internet in our lives and, the way in which it may blur online life as opposed to real life, make it nigh impossible to foretell what our lives will look like, even in as little as 30 years. It would not be unrealistic to suggest that attempts at forecasting likely changes in around 50 to 100 years would render common folk and, perhaps even current day experts, incoherent. If you doubt me, consider how often we hear the term social media today; "social media" as we know it did not exist just 10 years ago.

In the film Her, Theodore has a relationship with an Operating System.

I would argue that the future will brim with opportunity and benefit, but we must begin deliberating upon the potential harmful impacts awaiting humankind and whether we must ever confront challenges of the kind put forward by proponents of dystopia and whether we will ever have to deal with that, “hypothetical instant in time when artificial intelligence and other technologies have become so advanced that humanity undergoes a dramatic and irreversible change” – the singularity moment.

Further reading:

How the Internet Has Changed Everyday Life 

Bill Gates on dangers of artificial intelligence

5 Movies that Explain the Concept of Singularity

By 2030 we may find ourselves in an #InternetOfActions world where billions of autonomous machines will use interoperable data to manipulate matter, orchestrate human activity and alter how we perceive the world. Hearing from the experts @Telstra #TelstraLabs tonight #IOT #ethics pic.twitter.com/rZPw4hXJBB

— Madeleine Grummet (@MadsGrummet) July 18, 2018

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