Lovestruck

Recently watching 3 stinkers by Michael Raven in a row, made at different times in his career, I wonder about his outsized standing in Adult Cinema history. "Lovestruck" is mediocre (to poor) in nearly every respect, hardly worthy of an auteur.

It comes early in his Wicked Pictures career, after having directed several near classics for Sin City Entertainment. A vehicle for Wicked contract star Devinn Lane it is a thin Rom-Com without the Com, merely depicting in tiresome flashbacks how Lane and beau Joey Ray ended up tying the knot.

The gimmick, replete with each of them addressing the viewer (camera) directly in dumb split-screen visuals, almost lecturing us about the Battle of the Sexes, is that their circle of friends consists of all married couples except for them. The sex vignettes strung together, almost randomly in Raven's screenplay, recount various sexual encounters by members of the group, but it all adds up to nothing. We end where we began - a happy couple on their wedding day surrounded by their loving friends.

Devinn is an able sex performer, and her supporting cast of femmes including a ringer, sexy Brazilian star Olivia Del Rio so familiar from starring in '90s Euro Porn, are momentarily diverting as well. But from his dialog-heavy script Raven inexpicably shoots conversation scenes in extreme-extreme closeup, often just showing the lips or nose of a speaker, terrible technique unworthy of even a hack (even hacks are competent). It adds up to a nothing picture.