Maria Lease (using the pseudonym Jennifer Ray) directed this notorious roughie that still has the power to shock more than forty years after its original release. It’s startlingly effective, not only because of its grungy grindhouse aesthetic, but because it’s a damned good movie too.
Joey Silvera and his girlfriend (Chrissy Peterson) are enjoying a nice evening in when a gang of masked home invaders tie him up and rape her. As it turns out, this is just the sick way Joey and his buddies get their kicks. A detective then hires a sexy call girl (Phaery Burd) to trap Joey and his rapist buddies.
Although the opening gang scene is grueling, nasty, and long (almost twenty minutes), it does have a cinematic quality to it that makes it effective. Lease does an equally impressive job during the scene where Silvera and his lover (Elaine Wells) get it on while a dirty movie is projected onto their bodies. As this scene suggests, Expensive Tastes is in turns arty and exploitative, and sometimes works on both levels simultaneously. It also earns points for focusing on the main character’s trauma. Because of that, the film is not a mere catalyst for titillation, but also a psychological examination of emotional turmoil.
Even the so-called “normal” sex scenes have a sleazy edge to them. I’m thinking specifically of the scene where a hooker licks a guy’s hairy asshole. Lease also made the Little Girls Blue movies (under her more well-known name, Joanna Williams), and they couldn’t be any more different. Much of the film is definitely depraved and bawdy, but since it is taken from the female gaze, it has a touch of pathos and sympathy for the characters that are rarely found in the roughie genre.
It's not quite perfect though. The ending is awfully pat, and the plot is wrapped up way too quickly. Still, if you’re looking for a Golden Age porn flick that has something more to offer than just cheap smutty thrills, then Expensive Tastes will fit the bill nicely.
AKA: Expensive Taste.
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