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Dirty Director
Rating: 4 Stars
Produced and directed by Chris Ward. Videography by David Hempling and J.D. Slater. Music by J.D. Slater. Starring Michael Soldier, Tony Scalia, Michael Brandon, Bruce Jennings, Bret Wolfe, and Aaron Tanner.
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Michael Soldier, in the title role, sits nude on the edge of a sling, expatiating soberly on his métier as he smokes a cigarette. "I think directing porn is a lot like running a family business," he says, "and a filthy summer camp, and a repertory company, all in one." He stresses the need to establish trust and respect boundaries. "In shooting porn," he says, "if you don't know the difference between being a model and [being] a director, you're totally fucked." Later, we see him cross those boundaries and get totally fucked several times, especially by Michael Brandon.

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I> The Dirty Director is a volatile mixture of funny and hot. Running over three hours (in its DVD edition), this Chris Ward extravaganza may be overlong, and its models are sometimes self-consciously over-the-top. But only Chris Ward, himself a dirty director par excellence, could sustain a video even approaching this length with a six-man cast. These models aren't just sexual athletes, they're actors. Handsome, long-jawed Michael Soldier turns in his best performance to date; he's centered and relaxed, but at the same time comically, urgently lubricious. From the neck up, newcomer Tony Scalia is a pleasant, ordinary-looking guy who resembles the actor Burt Young; from the neck down, he's a rock-hard muscle prodigy. As a porn novice cast in a video by Soldier, he's a bemused, amiable presence.

There are five principal sex sequences, starting with the obligatory hands-on audition. In the second episode, a photo shoot triggers a lickerish fusion of model Michael Brandon, still photographer Aaron Tanner, and grip Bruce Jennings. After a solo vignette for Scalia, Soldier reappears to direct Scalia's first porn scene. The tyro is paired with Bret Wolfe, the kind of eager bottom for whom slings were invented. As he talks his performers through the scene, Soldier insinuates himself into the action; at the end, both models fire jets of spooge into their director's upturned face. When the scene is wrapped and Scalia takes off, Soldier lingers to fuck Wolfe. When Brandon and Jennings show up looking for paychecks, the resulting foursome just barely stops short of torching the studio.