For the neophyte, "Time and Tied", released together with four other short stories, presents the obscure genre of bondage/fetish videos in self-reflexive, usefully spoon-fed fashion. It helped solve several mysteries I've had in dealing with this esoteric content.
Director Jon Woods carefully includes explanations and even mockery of the clichés of his chosen field, and that helps relieve the tedium, since as in almost every bondage "adventure", almost nothing happens. The viewer is supposed to cream in his pants (literally) at the sight of buxom, half-clad women trussed up in ropes or chains and gagged, struggling to get free. These videos have been popular for over two decades now and remain unseen and unsung by the porno mainstream.
There are two big names lurking here, both of whom have impressed me in their mainstream assignments. Amber Michaels and Elexis Monroe are paired in an 8- minute segment titled "The Model Who Loved Bondage", in which their acting chops carry the day (most of these actresses are rightly dubbed "models" because they merely pose for a living, not doing any real acting).
Michaels is a star visited by do-gooder Monroe, latter similar to a 7th Day Adventist ringing doorbells to warn folks about the danger of cults. (This is amusing because the whole BDSM/fetish thing strikes me as having all the characteristics of a cult itself.) Michaels is bored - she's a successful bondage model, but only works a couple of days a month, and has a craving for being tied up on her own time. She pleads with innocent Elexis to do the honors, pointing out that if she's properly tied up and gagged she will listen attentively to Monroe's boring spiel.
Elexis finally breaks down and trusses the buxom beauty up, but then leaves, not bothering to tell her about her anti-cult activities. This cute rather than sexy vignette is effective satire and shows Woods's sense of humor. I love MIchaels in her regular porn outings -she was terrific starring in Nick Orleans's classic "Tales from the Pink", while Elexis a decade later emerged as one of the reigning queens of Lesbian Cinema.
Main title story runs 33 minutes and has elements of my favorite genre, Victorian Porn. It deals with private eye Sadie Atkins, hired by Lydia McLane for a case, but constantly fainting and reappearing 100 years earlier with fancy period dress. The Victorian story has an evil uncle (Ikaras) planning to off Lady McLane in order to inherit the fortune of her late grandmother when the will is read. Recurring motif has poor Atkins being chloroformed and tied up over and over again.
Unlike quality Victorian porn, this bondage version is uneventful, with no actual sex, merely the two women tied up, and McLane eventually topless for the fans. It's all about the tease, and apparently fans of this nonsense cannot get enough of being teased, especially compared to the varying levels of explicitness one associates with both soft-core and hardcore porn. The fact that there is dialog and a modicum of "action" (namely grabbing a lady and chloroforming her) is apparently enough but overall it is tedious to the non-believer.
"Sorority Tale" is a 10-minute vignette featuring Abby Cameron, not quite as funny as intended. It opens with a closeup of the Maltese Falcon, which I took to be a signal that these perpetrators of ever so lightweight bondage action are actually into Camp. The black bird is a prized possession of sorority Gamma Alpha Gamma (how funny an acronym, haw-haw!), which rival sisterhood Kappa Iota annually tries to steal. This reminded me of the sort of rivalry, over a trophy or talisman, that exists for some NCAA football teams, but this is girl/girl action here. The fighting and prevarication over the Falcon is pretty lame, and hardly rises to the expected fetish cat fight I was expecting.
"A Different Institution" runs 15 minutes and is meant to be a cute story of twists, but is way too cornball to pass muster. It is set at Bentwood Psychiatric Hospital in Hidden Hills, CA, where Justine Romee is in a strait jacket, put there by her mean lover Dr. Chase Bracco. She inveigles a nurse to set her free, and we get various reversals and switcheroos, all quite predictable and uninteresting. This segment does demonstrate the heavy-duty misogyny that permeates fetish porn, in which the viewer is always meant to be rooting against the protagonist women, in hopes they will be hog-tied, suspended or otherwise made uncomfortable for our listening and dancing pleasure. The inversions are so obvious that my interest in the genre is waning fast.
Finale is titled "The Interview" and is just that, as a vapid reporter interviews overnight success Sybil, whose new CD is a hit and whose first movie is coming out soon. Mocking celebrity, the segment inevitably turns comically sinister as the hapless reporter ends up hog-tied, left stranded even by her location crew. Typically sloppy in execution, Sybil at the end calls the show "Entertainment Tonight" when earlier the reporter had rightly enunciated it as a fictional "Entertainment Today" - I highly doubt the real ET sued.
Besides its repetitive and boring nature, the biggest problem with this content is the amateurish cheapness these videos exhibit. The concepts of "set design" and especially "set dressing" are unknown to these filmmakers, and with the exception of an attic for part of the Victorian segment, all these varied scenes take place in a bland living room, with window curtains as backdrop. The mental hospital staging is completely bare -just a beige blank wall with two electric socket plates and carpeting. Purporting to be "fantasy" or "adventure", the crumminess of these productions, whether they be old Harmony Concepts or current champ label FM Concepts (or even Brooklyn's Bizarre Video) is insulting.
Director Jon Woods carefully includes explanations and even mockery of the clichés of his chosen field, and that helps relieve the tedium, since as in almost every bondage "adventure", almost nothing happens. The viewer is supposed to cream in his pants (literally) at the sight of buxom, half-clad women trussed up in ropes or chains and gagged, struggling to get free. These videos have been popular for over two decades now and remain unseen and unsung by the porno mainstream.
There are two big names lurking here, both of whom have impressed me in their mainstream assignments. Amber Michaels and Elexis Monroe are paired in an 8- minute segment titled "The Model Who Loved Bondage", in which their acting chops carry the day (most of these actresses are rightly dubbed "models" because they merely pose for a living, not doing any real acting).
Michaels is a star visited by do-gooder Monroe, latter similar to a 7th Day Adventist ringing doorbells to warn folks about the danger of cults. (This is amusing because the whole BDSM/fetish thing strikes me as having all the characteristics of a cult itself.) Michaels is bored - she's a successful bondage model, but only works a couple of days a month, and has a craving for being tied up on her own time. She pleads with innocent Elexis to do the honors, pointing out that if she's properly tied up and gagged she will listen attentively to Monroe's boring spiel.
Elexis finally breaks down and trusses the buxom beauty up, but then leaves, not bothering to tell her about her anti-cult activities. This cute rather than sexy vignette is effective satire and shows Woods's sense of humor. I love MIchaels in her regular porn outings -she was terrific starring in Nick Orleans's classic "Tales from the Pink", while Elexis a decade later emerged as one of the reigning queens of Lesbian Cinema.
Main title story runs 33 minutes and has elements of my favorite genre, Victorian Porn. It deals with private eye Sadie Atkins, hired by Lydia McLane for a case, but constantly fainting and reappearing 100 years earlier with fancy period dress. The Victorian story has an evil uncle (Ikaras) planning to off Lady McLane in order to inherit the fortune of her late grandmother when the will is read. Recurring motif has poor Atkins being chloroformed and tied up over and over again.
Unlike quality Victorian porn, this bondage version is uneventful, with no actual sex, merely the two women tied up, and McLane eventually topless for the fans. It's all about the tease, and apparently fans of this nonsense cannot get enough of being teased, especially compared to the varying levels of explicitness one associates with both soft-core and hardcore porn. The fact that there is dialog and a modicum of "action" (namely grabbing a lady and chloroforming her) is apparently enough but overall it is tedious to the non-believer.
"Sorority Tale" is a 10-minute vignette featuring Abby Cameron, not quite as funny as intended. It opens with a closeup of the Maltese Falcon, which I took to be a signal that these perpetrators of ever so lightweight bondage action are actually into Camp. The black bird is a prized possession of sorority Gamma Alpha Gamma (how funny an acronym, haw-haw!), which rival sisterhood Kappa Iota annually tries to steal. This reminded me of the sort of rivalry, over a trophy or talisman, that exists for some NCAA football teams, but this is girl/girl action here. The fighting and prevarication over the Falcon is pretty lame, and hardly rises to the expected fetish cat fight I was expecting.
"A Different Institution" runs 15 minutes and is meant to be a cute story of twists, but is way too cornball to pass muster. It is set at Bentwood Psychiatric Hospital in Hidden Hills, CA, where Justine Romee is in a strait jacket, put there by her mean lover Dr. Chase Bracco. She inveigles a nurse to set her free, and we get various reversals and switcheroos, all quite predictable and uninteresting. This segment does demonstrate the heavy-duty misogyny that permeates fetish porn, in which the viewer is always meant to be rooting against the protagonist women, in hopes they will be hog-tied, suspended or otherwise made uncomfortable for our listening and dancing pleasure. The inversions are so obvious that my interest in the genre is waning fast.
Finale is titled "The Interview" and is just that, as a vapid reporter interviews overnight success Sybil, whose new CD is a hit and whose first movie is coming out soon. Mocking celebrity, the segment inevitably turns comically sinister as the hapless reporter ends up hog-tied, left stranded even by her location crew. Typically sloppy in execution, Sybil at the end calls the show "Entertainment Tonight" when earlier the reporter had rightly enunciated it as a fictional "Entertainment Today" - I highly doubt the real ET sued.
Besides its repetitive and boring nature, the biggest problem with this content is the amateurish cheapness these videos exhibit. The concepts of "set design" and especially "set dressing" are unknown to these filmmakers, and with the exception of an attic for part of the Victorian segment, all these varied scenes take place in a bland living room, with window curtains as backdrop. The mental hospital staging is completely bare -just a beige blank wall with two electric socket plates and carpeting. Purporting to be "fantasy" or "adventure", the crumminess of these productions, whether they be old Harmony Concepts or current champ label FM Concepts (or even Brooklyn's Bizarre Video) is insulting.
