Written by L.L. Thomaso and directed by Tom Lazurus, this film was released in 1999 and is particularly interesting to me because of some of the cast. First, it has Mark Pellegrino in a lead role, although he’s credited here as Robert Rand. I remember Pelligrino from his role as Paul, Rita’s ex-husband, on the TV series Dexter, and many other mainstream roles he’s appeared in since then. According to his IMDB page he’d already acting since 1987 at this point, and it’s the only time he’s credited with using another name. I just find that interesting as it makes me wonder about the circumstances behind him taking this role, like was he hesitant about appearing in a softcore film, and that’s why he used another name?

Also appearing in this film is Rex Lee, in his only 3rd professional acting gig, long before he’d appear in mainstream roles like Entourage, and Marshell Manesh, whom I know from his recurring role as Ranjit the cab driver on How I Met Your Mother. Those two have much smaller roles, and as actors of Color it’s easier to understand why they’d appear in a softcore film back then (in Hollywood, sometimes you have to take what you can get).

Anyway, the main star of this film is Catalina Larranaga who plays Torri, a high-class call girl. Pellegrino plays Darrow who, along with his girlfriend Kensington (LoriDawn Messuri) are filmmakers, filming a documentary about her and her lifestyle. So throughout the film, we get snippets of several different interviews with Torri, where Darrow asks her questions about her life and her chosen career. Occasionally Darrow and his camera crew follow her on some of her “dates”, and also conduct follow-up interviews with her clients.

Conflict arises early on, as it seems that Darrow and Kensington have different motivations for shooting this film, with him being more sympathetic towards Torri and Kensington wanting to paint a more negative portrait of her. At one point Kensington does some digging into Torri’s background and finds out that the info she’d told them about where she went to school and previous employment was false, and Darrow confronts Torri to find out what she’s hiding. Kensington also begins to get jealous as she suspects that Darrow’s growing interest in Torri isn’t just platonic. She is correct about that, and eventually, Darrow and Torri do have sex, leading to a breakup between Darrow and Kensington. And then the film jumps ahead to after the documentary has been released, where we see how everyone’s lives have turned out.

It’s a decent film, I get what they were going for here, making this a serious character-driven drama. It’s a bit slow in some areas, the interview segments weren’t that interesting, I skipped forward a few times. But the cast is great in this, Catalina and LoriDawn were softcore veterans who knew how to act, and Pellegrino does a great job, not only with the acting but with the sex scenes. If he’d wanted to pursue it, I believe he could have been a successful leading man in the softcore genre.

As for the sex scenes, Pellegrino is in three. Two with Messuri and one with Larranaga.
Larranaga has four full sex scenes, one with Christian Malmin, one with Daniel D. Anderson, and one with Nikita, all of whom play clients of Torri. The lesbian scene is notable because Larranaga uses a vibrator, which is shown onscreen, that’s not a common site in these films.  She also has a threesome scene with Jamaica Charley, who plays another call girl, and Louis D’Alto, who plays a client.

There are a few other shot scenes where Larranaga gets naked or topless and simulates masturbation. She also has a short scene where she’s naked in bed with a man and jacks him off. And Manesh plays another client that hires Torri, she gets topless and simulates blowing him while in the backseat of a limo, but there’s no full-on sex portrayed.

Chacebook rating: FOUR STARS

Jason Majercik is selling the UNRATED DVD for $29.99. Email him at quinn_nash@hotmail.com for his softcore inventory list.