Love on the Rocks (2016)

Even in a gonzo age of Adult Entertainment, Adam & Eve continues to produce romantic content, with skilled director of the form Skye Blue behind the camera on this successful entry. Previously resisting her come-on, I was won over by Abigail Mac in the lead role, an empathetic and erotic young heroine this time out.

Title derives from Mac working as a bartender, anxious to get a date and become the girlfriend of barfly Jay Smooth. The quality script by Melissa Monet (still underrated both as actress and latter-day Adult filmmaker) follows time-honored tenets of the rom-com genre, with Mac finally falling for Ryan Driller on cue, while the viewer knows immediately he's the one but she is turned off by him for most of the duration.

There's a quality supporting cast on view, notably Alix Lynx as a beautiful young blonde in the mix, and always reliable Euro beauty Natalia Starr (solo, minus her sister Natasha in this cast) as the lover of Mac's boss Mick Blue. The contrast between the quality of this feature and literally dozens of similar (but crude) Digital Playground vehicles featuring Mick several years earlier as vehicles for that label's trademarked stars like Jesse Jane, Stoya and Bibi Jones is amazing.

The film's look, in terms of set design and color scheme, is remarkably beautiful throughout, a testament to director Skye who often (though not this time) takes the art direction credit. This should serve it in good stead when the show appears someday on late-night cable shorn of its XXX content, a market that Adam & Eve thrives in while the tens of thousands of gonzo new releases are quickly and hopefully eternally forgotten.