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The Crystal Tunnel
Rating: 3 Stars
Produced by Grant Wood. Directed by Bebe Rosada. Written by Donald von Wiedenman. Videography by John Simms and Cashis Green. Edited by Aries Post. Music by Sharon Kane. Starring Grant Wood, Adam Hart, Sonny Markham, Spike, Jake Armstrong, Tony Cummings, Marco Antonio, Chip Knoll, Sandy Sloane, Michael Crawford, Rick Allen, Austin Reeves, and Derrick Mills.
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Wealthy, drug-dependent Sonny (Grant Wood) has been unconscious for six months. His condition isn't the direct result of substance abuse: he fell off an oceanside cliff while gawking at a couple of guys having sex on the beach. Confined now to his lavish, Pepto Bismol-hued villa in Malibu, he vegetates under the supervision of his nasty stepbrother Kyle (Jake Armstrong), who calls him "Coma Boy," and an ex-inmate nurse (Michael Crawford). Key people from Sonny's life turn up to visit, triggering Citizen Kane-style flashbacks.

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This two-hour production is lushly produced and technically superb. Its eight sex scenes are sometimes intense. But the story is somewhat askew. Faithless Adam Hart is supposedly the love of Sonny's life, but Hart and Wood never really have a scene together, sexual or otherwise. Rick Allen, as a guy named Omar who has loved Sonny unrequitedly for years, and Tony Cummings, as an angel-faced hustler from Texas, have more to do, and do it more effectively. Sonny Markham and Spike are wasted as motel-room tricks.

One odd aspect of The Crystal Tunnel is its attitude toward drugs, from crystal meth down to nicotine. The story has the trappings of a cautionary tale. But Sonny, whose drug use is allegedly a problem, looks fit and alert. (Grant Wood seemed more ravaged in the recent Late Nite Porn.) When he snorts lines of whatnot off Rick Allen's back, or presses a bottle of poppers to his nose, the effect is glamorous and hot. Since the recreational drug use that for many gay men is a routine part of sex is seldom acknowledged in gay video, it's perversely pleasurable to see it depicted here. And when Cummings and Wood smoke cigarettes in a jacuzzi, it recalls the sexual buzz that Forties movie stars produced when they smoked onscreen.