“Bitter Sweet”: Underwear Models And the Women Who Love Them

Xander Corvus is an underwear model on fire. Can Zoey Monroe reel him in and tame him as her own? Or will she give up on love and go to New York? Joke's on you, Lady: No one lives in New York anymore!

Bitter Sweet

Studio: Smash Pictures
Director: Jim Powers
Starring: Zoey Monroe, Xander Corvus, Riley Reid, Melody Jordan, Emily Austin, Alyssa Branch, Cody Sky, Tyler Nixon, Logan Pierce, Billy Hart

Review by: Gram Ponante

This couples' porn from Smash Pictures is admirable for a number of reasons. It really tries to capture on a small budget the essence of the male model: manscaped and narcissistic. At least Xander Corvus is. He is a prima donna whose unprofessional behavior threaten to ruin his career and torpedo the love of a good woman.

Oddly enough, Smash did such a good job casting the men (there is even a scene with Corvus and Logan Pierce in bed together, which is both brave and canny for a couples' film, considering that it is whispered that the two or three women who watch straight porn like hints of homoeroticism) that the women are a little bit of an afterthought. Only slatternly barmaid Riley Reid makes sense in the female roles; everyone else appears a little less groomed than her male counterpart.

But that may have been a choice as well. If a movie like "Bitter Sweet" really errs on the side of female viewers, perhaps they'd rather see pretty men. Their boyfriends might be happy with anything.

Not that Melody Jordan (so good in "Oasis"), Emily Austin, and Alyssa Branch are chopped liver, it's just that it was hard to believe their characters as office workers and dancers and whatnot. This movie is really about the guys.

In the end, Zoey makes the decision that suggests the movie's title. And that's another reason to like this film: "Bitter Sweet" does not refer to semen.

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