Page 74 - AVN September 2015

editor’s choice
A Thing of Beauty
AAAA 1/2
DV Productions/Evil Angel
EvilDistributor.com
Director: Dana Vespoli
Cast: Bree Daniels, Aiden Starr, Skin
Diamond, Sinn Sage, Karlie Mon-
tana, Dana Vespoli, Logan Pierce,
Mick Blue. 137 Min.
Category: Drama
Dana Vespoli takes another walk
on the dark side, and those who
were impressed with Forsaken and
Hollywood Babylon will embrace A
Thing of Beauty. For inspiration, the
brainy director hits on a literary
wellspring: Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe’s Faust, the early-19th-
century masterwork of German
literature that has inspired operas,
symphonies, novels, plays and
... porno. And this Evil Angel
production does justice to the
demonic undertones of the work.
Vespoli, of course, is the
Mephistophelean figure:
Victoria Hook, star of a series of
infomercials promising her disciples
that “everything’s going to change”
after they call (800) 666-6655.
Absorbing her spiel apathetically
is Bree Daniels, curled on a couch,
disheveled, tarted down to look
unappealing (no easy task for the
redheaded beauty). The next day
her character—also named Bree
Daniels—reaches the breaking
point when she’s canned by her
MOVIES
temp agency. So she dials 666 ...
and Vespoli’s there with a contract,
which Daniels signs with the same
level of attention she would grant
an iTunes agreement.
Sure enough, everything changes.
With blown-out hair, no glasses
and perfect posture, she soon finds
herself in the arms of Logan Pierce,
74 | AVN.com | 9.15
who recognizes her from her time as a temp
at Pierce and Pierce. “Something about you
is different—in a good way, I mean,” he says.
And that leads to the first movie’s sex
scene. With Pierce worshipping her breasts,
face, lips and pussy, Daniels couldn’t ask
for a more solicitous lover. Even when she’s
blowing him, he fingers her to ecstasy and
then enters her slowly. The pace doesn’t
stay slow, but Pierce keeps things sweet and
romantic.
Not so sweet is her next liaison—the first
sign that perhaps she should have read that
fine print. Dropped off by the bus in the
middle of nowhere for her new job at an
art gallery, instead she finds Sinn Sage and
Karlie Montana, lesbian succubi who take
her to a dank, graffiti-scarred tunnel and
force her into a twisted three-way. Among
the twists is a crucifix-shaped dildo. “Look at
you, taking all of Christ,” they giggle. “Shall
we take her back home with us?” one asks.
“She doesn’t really have a choice,” comes the
reply.
There’s spooky blasphemy aplenty back at
that home, including demented ballerina Lea
Lexis pirouetting to Helen Kane’s “I Wanna
Be Loved by You,” and two seductions of
fallen angels, marked by the bloody stumps
of their shorn-off wings. In the first scene,
Aiden Starr tells former angel Skin Diamond,
“They’re never going to let you into heaven
again after what I’m going to do to you
today.”
Once Starr proves her point, it’s time for
Vespoli to take possession of Mick Blue.
“You smell like heaven,” she murmurs. “It’s
so nice when they cast you guys out and
bring you here.” Initially hesitant, angelic
Blue gets deep into the sex—and Vespoli’s
ass.
After she gets her hooks into Blue,
Vespoli’s character comes for Daniels. Will
the devil get her due? All is revealed in a
surprise ending (no spoiler here).
In the BTS footage, Vespoli talks about
her ambition to create a worthy vehicle for
her leading lady, and she’s certainly met that
goal. As in Forsaken and Hollywood Babylon,
which put Ash Hollywood and Sovereign
Syre in the narrative spotlight, Vespoli uses
A Thing of Beauty as a different kind of star
showcase—one that focuses more on the
inner character of her performers and less on
their personal attributes.
— Iris Blocks
Angels and Demons From top left, Aiden Starr and Skin
Diamond, Mick Blue and Dana Vespoli, Bree Daniels.