Paul Norman was a pornographer who made many an unusual video, famed for bi-sexual product and memorable for "Edward Penishands" in particular. He even ventured into mainstream horror with Clint Howard in "The Ice Cream Man". "Fetish" is a lesser-known title that really surprised me -far better than a thousand of the bondage/fetish videos that litter the market and are directed by so-called experts in the field.
The combination of casting and creativity wins the day here, as well as a willingness to incorporate the kinky material into a watchable, story-line porn format with emphasis on sex rather than "observe the victim" tactics. Rocky Roads is cast in one of her most appealing roles as Violet, a new hire for terrorizing fetish magazine boss Samantha Strong, who soon learns the ropes in a BDSM world. I was quite surprised that this well-written feature was made 6 years before the novel "The Devil Wears Prada" was published, yet writer-director Norman covers the same material in much better fashion than the surface clichés of the Meryl Streep movie and its imitators. Perhaps Paul's not being tied to a real-life figure like Anna Wintour stirred the creative juices, the exact opposite of what has happened in the pervasive and pernicious "parody" trend of recent years.
Wearing plain clothing (but her bust thrust out under her shirt in amazingly alluring fashion), Rocky is under wraps for much of the earlier reels, adding to the thrill of her coming out later in fetish-gear, ready for hot and heavy sex. She is overlooked in Strong's mini-empire, but catches the eye of Strong's financial backer Mark Davis, who is responsible for her predictable break out near the end of the film in the contest to launch the Next Big Thing in the fetish magazine modeling world.
Many colorful characters (and players) are included in the mix, including erstwhile top XXX make-up artist Shelby Stevens looking terrific as Strong's equally busty lesbian lover (big breasts are a fetish all their own in this feature); Napolean the dwarf cavorting outdoors in the nude as slave to a fetching dom Mistrress played by Raven McCall; lovely and energetic Chloe with a whole new look as a ballerina having sex with 3 guys dressed as soldiers, all of them seasoned porn stars; and of course Samantha Strong herself - truly amazing in her best late-career role.
With BDSM lite and various types of fetish material all the rage these days, current practitioners would do well to give this 20-year-old feature a peek, as Norman mastered the high points and avoided the pitfalls of what has become the dullest area in all of Adult Entertainment.
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