Pride goeth before a fall, but for pornographer B. Skow, overpraised for his early efforts and even by me (before I started seeing so many of his stinkers), it's full speed ahead in the "I can do anything" department. Just like that old saw of an actor so good he can entertain by just reading the phone book aloud, Skow had the temerity to concoct this porno inspired merely (and flimsily) by the Stones' 1965 song "Mother's Little Helper".
Unlike Skow who is not old enough to have heard the song when it was released, I was a huge Stones fan dating back to "Not Fade Away", seeing them in concert for the first time back in 1964 (in my hometown of Cleveland). This song was impressive, almost as a novelty tune, the way The Who's John Entwistle would get a B-side occasionally like "Boris the Spider". To base a movie on this trifle 50 years after is absurd.
And the result, with no script credit (it shows), is poor. Editing is ridiculously sloppy and arbitrary, actors left to ham it up uncontrolled, and the focus of the story, beyond a springboard for sex scenes (of course) is aimless.
Dana DeArmond, a favorite of Skow's (and mine) has the principal role, wife to a very subdued Evan Hunter and step-mom to cutie Kasey Warner. She's a mess, a crazy person and per the Stones' song, addicted to those little white pills. Too bad for the audience that Dana is permitted, nay encouraged, by Skow to overdo her performance tics, making crazies Crispin Glover and Brad Dourif in mainstream roles look positively restrained by comparison.
Worse yet, the central gimmick here is a confusingly presented "imaginary friend" character played by Brit import Ava Dalush as Emily. I tried to follow the plot line as best I could, but it is not clear whether Emily is totally imaginary or more akin to a ghost character, but either way, she appears and disappears at Skow's discretion by crude edits, and humps a lot, while only being visible to nutcase Dana.
Another badly conceived character is Penny Pax as Evan's first wife, presented as the voice of sanity in an otherwise dysfunctional lineup (similar to those in better Skow efforts like "Daddy's Girls" and "Homecoming", both laudable porn features). Real-life Pax is 25 and her daughter Warner is 20, but full speed ahead, taxing Pax's acting prowess. Maybe some Miss Jane Pittman old age makeup would have helped her fashion this lousy character. Or why not have the brains to hire Dyanna Lauren or Julia Ann to adequately fill the mom role?
Hysterical scenes follow one after the other in nearly random order until an extremely downbeat ending to insult the viewer, with Skow pouring on the anti-drug imagery with a trowel as the pill bottle features prominently in the frame in key scenes. I was very glad when it was finally over, and Skow had gotten something out of his system at the expense of loyal fans.
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