August 2004 Cover
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By
Giacomo Tramontagna
A Porn Star Is Born
Rating: 4 Stars
Produced, edited, and directed by Chris
Ward. Written by Chris Ward and Michael
Soldier. Videography by David Hempling.
Music by J.D. Slater and Mace. Starring
Michael Soldier, Shane Rollins, Jerek, Victor
Rios, Brendan Austen, Marco Montana,
Michael
Brandon, and others.
How to order
Released months ago amid a near-inundation of quality product from Raging Stallion
(Nexus, Rear End Collisions,
etc.), A Porn Star Is Born somehow fell through the cracks of this column. It's still available and worth seeking out. Chris Ward's story-driven videos tend to be
outclassed by his all-sex extravaganzas; here's an exception. In March, this two-and-a-half-hour homo version of
A Star Is Born won seven 2004 Gay VN awards, including trophies for best picture, director (Ward), actor (Michael Soldier), and supporting actor (co-star Shane Rollins). The
premise is primal kitsch: established star hits the skids as his up-and-coming spouse achieves fame. Itself derivative of
What Price Hollywood? (1932), A Star Is
Born was filmed three times. In 1937, Fredric March played the downwardly mobile Norman Maine opposite Janet Gaynor. In
1954, the roles went to James Mason and Judy Garland; in 1976, they slipped into the clutches of Kris Kristofferson and Barbara Streisand.
Now they belong to the superb Michael Soldier and to Shane Rollins, who is nothing if not up and coming. They're well matched as boyfriends and as rivals; sparks fly toward the stratosphere when they have sex.
Porn Star contains four long erotic segments and
assorted snippets. Apart from the Soldier-Rollins combo, we're shown steamy mock-excerpts from Soldier and Rollins's video output. There's also a classic exhibitionistic revel between Michael Brandon and Rollins, who suck and fuck publicly aboard a yacht in San Francisco Bay. Production
values are high; an army of actors play non-sexual supporting roles. Ward and Soldier's awarding-winning screenplay gives the ending a funny, positive spin that purges the story of some of its drippy masochism. Instead of walking into the sea or crashing his car, Soldier launches a rock
band. The song Soldier sings, "Porn Is the New Black," may be musical equivalent of walking into the sea, but if you've watched what precedes this number, you won't mind.
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