Movie Review – Wasteland

by Coleen Singer at Sssh.com with a little help from her hubby and Dan

Like most couples that have been married over a decade (never mind how long after the first decade!), Dan and I actually do occasionally watch a porno movie together. Most of the time it’s on hotel pay-per-view when we are on vacation (isn’t porn what you are supposed to watch in a hotel room?), but the concept of doing a “home viewing” night, watching porn with a reviewer’s eye together (as opposed to what we usually do, watching Season One of “Game Of Thrones” — same difference), was mighty appealing. We could become the hetero married version of Siskel and Ebert (never mind that they’re both dead), watching “better porn” together, and after the dust settles, write up some engaging reviews for other couples that really don’t grok together on XHamster LowRes clips of triple double penetration with small kitchen appliances or Mexican Donkeys.

Read on…

So, for our next review, we decided to watch together last year’s critically acclaimed adult film, “Wasteland.” Written and directed by Graham Travis (“Portrait of a Call Girl”), “Wasteland” stars Lily LaBeau and Lily Carter in an emotionally intense and heavily erotic story about two high school friends who’ve been reunited for one crazy night in Los Angeles.

So far so good. LA is a great backdrop for steamy action and Graham Travis is a remarkable director and producer.

Here is the SFW trailer for the film to get some context here:

So, as you can see from that preview, “Wasteland” isn’t your typical porn movie. It has good acting, a plot, attention to things like cinematography and character development, etc. Additionally, did I mention that “Wasteland” stars both Lily Carter and Lily LaBeau?

Individually, each of these two women represent some of the most talented and popular actresses currently working in the adult entertainment business. Put them together in a high-quality production like Wasteland and you’ve got something very special.

In an interview given over at XBIZ.com, director Graham Travis offered some insight into Wasteland. Asked to summarize what the film is about, here’s what he had to say…

“Wasteland” is a story about two very close childhood friends who haven’t seen in each other in a few years and spend one crazy, emotional, and adventurous night together. They’ve drifted in different directions, and become different people, and yet, in a very short space of time they reconnect in a powerful way. One of the characters is romantic, and the other is more cynical. In reconnecting to each other they reconnect with themselves and that inspires the journey they take together throughout the night.

The movie was actually inspired by a trip home I made to London. I was thinking a lot about the place I grew up and what had happened to a lot of the friends I had in that neighborhood. So I started to attempt to write a mainstream script that was more like a thriller about a guy running into an old pal, having some crazy times, while some darker secrets emerge along the way. But, that script didn’t go anywhere at all, even though I liked the story. I write plot driven stuff especially badly, and so I decided to eliminate all the thriller elements, and just focus on an emotional journey between the two characters. At that point I really found something I wanted to say, and then everyone who read the script seemed to like it. That was how it all came about.

Thus, with all of that in mind, Dan and I popped in the DVD and snuggled in with a bowl of popcorn, bottle of lube and box of Kleenex to watch the film.

About 15 minutes into it, we looked at each other and said with the mutual thought, “Oh My! This is like a real movie!” No. Not one of the “new wave of feminist porn” flix that tries to use the contrived plot lines of the Romance Fiction (read: Harlequin Novels) and applies soft filters to make everything look “all romantic and stuff”, but a well crafted movie with good acting, excellent production values, and, most importantly hot believable sex!

What Dan and I really enjoyed was the sheer diversity of sex scenes, ranging from girl-girl romance, to an intense gangbang and fetish club scene that might make Fashionista’s director John Stagliano blush. (Well, probably not.)

So, in the tradition of all two-person movie review teams, here are our ratings:

Coleen’s Rating: 9 out of 10. It all moved nicely through the plot line, with the plotline not dominating the film and making it felt like it was contrived “porn for women” fare. What really appealed to me about this film was it really nailed it by combining REALLY good sex scenes with great production values that kept our attention for the entire thing. Watching porn with Dan on a Sunday night to do a review could have gone SO BADLY if it was Bukakke Butt Plug Sluts #47, but this film did not disappoint at all. In fact, we had some really amazing sex after it was over! And that is the goal for couples watching porn together, isn’t it?
TWO THUMBS UP!

Dan’s Rating: 10 out of 10. I’m generally the kind of porn surfer that hits the tubes, looks for “girls with glasses” and am all done with my business in less than 2 minutes. But, with watching “Wasteland”, the viewing context was different. I was sitting on the sofa with my loving wife and intentionally watching an adult movie. The actual movie was good. Not like a boring “Skinamax Fantasy Erotic Island Episode After 11pm” style crap that is force fed to guys to pop on as an alternative to David Letterman to heat things up with the missus. It’s just simply a good, hot sex movie that is made in a way for a couple to watch it instead of “Game Of Thrones” Episode 1, #4.
TWO THUMBS UP!

[This review originally was published on my guest columnist blog at Fleshbot.com]