Exchange Student

"Exchange Student" by its title signals the niche known as "Teen Sex" to porno rack jobbers, just as the lion's share of 21st Century Adult video is carefully conceived and marketed to niche audiences with obvious labeling (e.g., Anal, Interracial, MILF, Squirters, Girl/Girl, Boy/Boy, Transsexual, etc.). But filmmaker Nica Noelle takes a different tack, remaining true to her Prime Directive of providing naturalistic sex (her personally voiced-over motto at the beginning of each Sweet Sinner DVD is "Real Lovemaking, Real Orgasms") and creative, minimalist narratives.

Ingenious gimmick for this first episode of a discontinued Sweet Sinner series has all 3 male performers cast from the top ranks of Euro Porn stars (each boasting well over a thousand credits) for a story set in France. Elexis Monroe is married to David Perry, and has an exchange student hailing from her old American college coming to stay with them. She met Perry originally as an exchange student coming to France and is paying it forward.

Chayse Evans is a revelation in the title role - a tall brunette who (other than an intricate tattoo on her shoulders) doesn't resemble a typical porn actress, and is mighty lovely and alluring her. I've seen her in bit parts in story films (e.g., Paul Thomas's Dorcel movie "Mother and Daughter" and the disastrous "Malice in Lalaland") but poor Chayse has been mired in hundreds of interchangeable gonzo filler assignments.

Central drama erupts in the form of Lay's step-daughter Nicole Ray, a role that should have gone to a French actress (it would have had Dorcel been co-producing). Ray resents the American intruder into her household and is even more jealous than maman Monroe when all the studs immediately start exchanging come-hither glances with Chayse.

Said studs are, besides Perry, Nicole's boyfriend Marco Banderas and Perry's old buddy and former babysitter for Nicole, Manuel Ferrara. To quote my old pal Andy Sidaris of soft-core fame, that's a lot of dickage to contend with.

I won't spoil the resolution in Act 4 of the story as it was a complete and most pleasant surprise for me (leading to Nica's almost inevitable open ending) but en route to that final vignette we get the married Elexis and David enthusiastically humping in bed, followed by Nicole serviced by her clueless guy Banderas, and then Manuel irresistibly seduced by Chayse. The naturalism of each sex scene is unquestioned, with Noelle's only concession to commercial considerations being the studs "opening up" to the camera, as they've done countless times before in order to maximize the explicitness of the XXX content.

This is a model of conciseness and precision, bringing out the best in an admittedly overworked cast. For Elexis Monroe fans, it's a rare opportunity to see her in hot boy/girl action (alongside perhaps a half- dozen other Nica movies made around this time for Sweet Sinner), instead of her hundreds of iconic Lesbian roles.

Unlike most Sweet Sinner series, this cast returns for a sequel appropriately titled "Exchange Student 2", that takes the story in another direction and emphasizes Chayse's participation.