Habits of the Heart

Fortunately reissued on DVD by Adam & Eve, this little feature starring Stacy Valentine is a wistful romantic tale from the VHS era well worth rediscovering.

Simplicity is the secret to writer-director Thomas Paine's success here, as well as getting empathetic performances from his leads Valentine and Alec Metro. They're a young couple with ambitions: he wants to become a military fighter pilot and she's off to Hollywood with hopes of stardom.

Years later he's driving a taxi in L.A. when Valentine gets in his cab as a fare. They have this chance reunion in a bar, comparing notes on what's happened in their lives since parting, making for a porn vignette structure to the movie.

J.R. Carrington, Raylene and Aja highlight the big-bust femme cast, and Stacy shows both in her acting and sexuality why she was such a big star at the time.

Film's structure is novel, in that it opens with Stacy & Alec having outdoor sex, yet defies the romantic genre of them getting back together (sexually) at the end, instead opting for a most satisfying wistful and bittersweet conclusion. And Paine's frequent use of softcore camera angles, typical of softcore features, avoids the gonzo tendencies of this genre.