Love Story, A (DVD)

The Gay Erotic Video Awards are just around the corner, and one of the videos being talked about a lot is Forum Studios' porno romance A Love Story. With nominations for Best Video, Best Director (Sam Abdul, Best Music (Sharon Kane and Tom Alex), and Best Supporting Actor (Jackson Phillips), A Love Story is clearly being recognized as Forum's most impressive porno of the year.

Sam Abdul took some interesting risks with this porno. Some of the parts, including one sex scene, are filmed in black & white, and a few other sections are done in a reddish sepia tone. The black & white sections are meant to represent one lover's dreams of a past life while the sepia toned sections represent the other lover's memories of the early days of their seven year relationship.

Sam Abdul isn't the only director to get a little creative this year, but it seems that risk taking is really paying off for certain pornographers. Chi Chi LaRue got a little twisted in her queer video Hardcore and earned eight nominations. Wash West brought a stylized and hard edged style to porno and earned seven nominations for Dr. Jerkoff & Mr. Hard and four nominations for Naked Highway. Vidkid Timo and Rico de la Playa unexpectantly turned heads with Mardi Gras Cowboy, earning them seven nominations, while Josh Eliot used cheesy horror film effects in Night of the Living Bi-Dolls to earn seven nominations, as well.

With all of this competition, Sam Abdul might not be the one who ends up on top, but his contribution to a year full of innovation and creativity cannot be overlooked. His fiftieth video, A Love Story, is a touching story of two men who are destined to be together no matter how many lifetimes it takes. With true romance as its base, A Love Story uses a tight, fully cohesive plot, quite a number of good performances, interesting videography, and, of course, five hot sex scenes to create an erotic experience which is as heartfelt as it is pornographic.

Audience members who can't stand plot in pornos may criticize A Love Story's extensive non-sexual scenes, but those who want more than sex out a gay movie will appreciate the attention Abdul has paid to the romantic and often trying aspects of gay relationships. The story is rather non-linear, as it bounces between the '40s, the early '90s and the present day, and some might find the story difficult to follow, but with the right amount of attention the intricate structuring of the plot quickly becomes easy to navigate.

A Love Story begins with a fight between Mark (Matt Bradshaw) and Sam (Jackson Phillips) which takes place after Mark walks in on Sam in the middle of an orgy. While driving away, Mark gets into a car accident and loses his memory. As Sam searches for Mark, who has seemingly disappeared, Mark remembers a past life when he was a wounded soldier named Kevin in the care of a nurse named Jay (an earlier incarnation of Sam). While the only opposing forces in this story seem to be time and circumstance, the tension steadily builds as Mark slowly loses his identity in his own soul's romantic yet tragic past even as Sam struggles to become reunited with the only man he has ever really loved.

Naturally, in the midst of all this mushy stuff, there's a lot of sex. The first sex scene is in black & white and involves Jay (Jackson) giving an intense sponge bath to Kevin (Matt). Soon, Jay is sucking Kevin's cock and Kevin reciprocates, despite his injuries.

While looking for Mark, Sam interrupts a three-way between Glen Hunter, Anthony Gallo and Peter Wilder. As soon as Sam leaves, the three men go back to sucking each other off and fucking the hell out of Peter's ass.

Still distraught over the disappearance of Mark, Sam answers his phone and gets invited to a sex party with Mario Antonio, Kyle Reardon, Kurt Stefano, and Jordan West. Sam declines the offer, and the four men proceed without him.

Eventually, we discover what upset Mark so much, eventually causing him to crash Sam's car. As Sam remembers that evening, we're lead into an extremely hot orgy scene with Paul Morgan, Marcelo Reeves, Eric Rieger, Thom Barron, Brian Daniels, and Tony Zerega.

When everything comes together, we're given one last, romantically erotic scene between Mark and Sam. As the two of them make love, sharing each other's body until they reach a pinnacle of pleasure, we're given a glimpse of sex at it's purest and most tender. It's definitely a nice change of pace, considering the rugged and lascivious nature of most pornos-not that we mind that either.