Guess Who's Coming to Dinner: "She's Come Undone"

Wouldn’t it be great if a pornographer were brave enough to name her movie after a Guess Who song? Dana Vespoli is that pornographer.

In “She’s Come Undone,” Dana Vespoli (and co-star Sovereign Syre) remind us that we do a lot of talking in bed, and that pantslessness facilitates communication.

(It’s a very small cast because there’s No Time Left for You.)

Studio: Evil Angel
Director: Dana Vespoli
Starring: Dana Vespoli, Sovereign Syre, Julia Ann, Lea Lexis, Presley Hart, Manuel Ferrara, Sinn Sage

Amanda (Vespoli) is unraveling. A tightly-wound porn director (“I’m an actor’s director!” she protests in a phone call that I couldn’t help but think was a filmed version of a conversation that actually happened) whose marriage to Julia Ann has hit an infidelity-aided bump (Presley Hart is very bumpy), Amanda calls an escort service and selects Romany (Sovereign Syre) to be the object of her aggression.

But even in Romany Amanda gets screwed over. She shows up dressed exactly like a hooker, when Amanda asked for a sundress and “no hooker heels.” What’s more, Roamny busts out terms like “safeword” and “impact play” for Amanda to mock.

“It’s the new Mother Nature taking over,” Amanda doesn’t say under her breath.

We really feel for Amanda. Nothing is going her way. Romany won’t even let Amanda do anything to her butt. “It’s a hard No,” Romany says, at which point Amanda’s expression of incredulity is perfectly understandable.

There is no sugar, as it were, in her coffee.

As in her recent movies for Evil Angel, Vespoli gets away with some things that her peers mightn’t attempt. When Romany says “No,” for example, Amanda just keeps going. (“Oh,” Amanda says. “You mean don’t do THIS?”)

In a movie that is all flashback, told between sessions on the hotel room bed (with dogs barking outside—how can the director Amanda hope to get work done with that going on?), the pantsless or totally naked pair relive Amanda’s breakup and infidelity and Romany’s journey from graduate school to prostitution via the persuasive Lea Lexis.

“American Woman,” Lea Lexis does not say, “stay away from me.”

As with all Vespoli’s movies, there is a lot here, and there is at least one line I’m totally stealing. When Amanda accuses Romany of judging her, the latter says that she is “just taking it all in.” It buys time!

Both actresses give sober, somber performances that underline loneliness and a need for connection, in addition to the sex worker’s common role as a confidante. In addition, Amanda/Vespoli whips out some boilerplate john-on-sex worker hatred.

While this is not a feel-good lesbo buddy romp with pillowfights, “She’s Come Undone” is a hopeful movie that happens to have a lot of sex in it, and those attendant post-or-intercoital moments when it’s OK to go deeper.

“These eyes cry every night for you,” Romany doesn’t say in a moment of tenderness.

But we do hear a refrain of the sex worker’s lament.

“I know as long as I’m a little bit afraid, that something’s happening,” says Romany, and “She’s Come Undone” is just a little bit scary.

Buy “She’s Come Undone” here