Dana Vespoli's incisive portrait of the lure and pitfalls of L.A. reaches full flower in "A Thing of Beauty". This companion piece to her elegant Gay Drama "The Devil Is in the Details" showcases Bree Daniels' beauty and acting skills in a Faustian cautionary tale.
Cast against type, Bree is introduced as a mousy, depressive young woman working as a temp who contemplates suicide. She perseveres but her life is going nowhere -even her current temp position is suddenly and arbitrarily ended, and her agency drops her in the bargain.
She falls prey to a TV pitch-person (director Vespoli in a tightly-controlled evil performance) promising the moon in one of those phony self-help ads. Such junk is shown late at night when folks' resistance is down, and Bree phones the displayed number and gets an appointment with the self-appointed guru.
The feature moves into sinister "Twilght Zone" territory with some odd details, and Dana quickly delivering on her contract, as Bree is suddenly hired full-time to work for a firm she had temped for a while back. With a new look (good old Bree's pretty natural self allowed to show through the previously geeky styling) she even gets a tumble from a business acquaintance, sympathetically played by Logan Pierce.
But there's no business at the address she was given, and it's obvious that Dana is giving her the business. Soon she's in Hell, literally (Bree should have read the fine print in Dana's contract) and Vespoli's imagination gives us a dark picture which breathes new life into an admittedly cornball subject.
Highlight for me was out of left field when guest star Lea Lexis, not in a sex role this time, performs a strange ballet while wearing mime styled makeup and performing in jerky puppet-like movements. Lexis is a versatile, unsung performer who I had previously enjoyed doing acrobatic sex positions in James Avalon's "The Swinger 2" and she is a stand-out here.
Fleshing out the film's sexual content, besides the Logan/Bree hookup we get to see a lesbian threesome with the gals dressed like droogs from "A Clockwork Orange" (replete with top hats); Aiden Starr doing her patented lesbian BDSM thing with submissive Skin Diamond; and Mick Blue humping away in limbo.
Vespoli uses a stark white background for many scenes that gives "A Thing" an experimental quality. The twist ending is open-ended but mean-spirited enough to satisfy.
For further examples of Dana's touch in this dramatic vein see her "Lesbian Stepsisters 2" and "Hollywood Babylon".
Cast against type, Bree is introduced as a mousy, depressive young woman working as a temp who contemplates suicide. She perseveres but her life is going nowhere -even her current temp position is suddenly and arbitrarily ended, and her agency drops her in the bargain.
She falls prey to a TV pitch-person (director Vespoli in a tightly-controlled evil performance) promising the moon in one of those phony self-help ads. Such junk is shown late at night when folks' resistance is down, and Bree phones the displayed number and gets an appointment with the self-appointed guru.
The feature moves into sinister "Twilght Zone" territory with some odd details, and Dana quickly delivering on her contract, as Bree is suddenly hired full-time to work for a firm she had temped for a while back. With a new look (good old Bree's pretty natural self allowed to show through the previously geeky styling) she even gets a tumble from a business acquaintance, sympathetically played by Logan Pierce.
But there's no business at the address she was given, and it's obvious that Dana is giving her the business. Soon she's in Hell, literally (Bree should have read the fine print in Dana's contract) and Vespoli's imagination gives us a dark picture which breathes new life into an admittedly cornball subject.
Highlight for me was out of left field when guest star Lea Lexis, not in a sex role this time, performs a strange ballet while wearing mime styled makeup and performing in jerky puppet-like movements. Lexis is a versatile, unsung performer who I had previously enjoyed doing acrobatic sex positions in James Avalon's "The Swinger 2" and she is a stand-out here.
Fleshing out the film's sexual content, besides the Logan/Bree hookup we get to see a lesbian threesome with the gals dressed like droogs from "A Clockwork Orange" (replete with top hats); Aiden Starr doing her patented lesbian BDSM thing with submissive Skin Diamond; and Mick Blue humping away in limbo.
Vespoli uses a stark white background for many scenes that gives "A Thing" an experimental quality. The twist ending is open-ended but mean-spirited enough to satisfy.
For further examples of Dana's touch in this dramatic vein see her "Lesbian Stepsisters 2" and "Hollywood Babylon".