Cast: Ashley Roberts, Blake Richards, Ethan Hawk, Francesca Le’, James Deen
Director: Gary Orona
Studio: Zero Tolerance
For those who appreciate their porn served with a hefty dose of thought, Tabitha Stevens and director Gary Orona serve up “Sanatorium,” a polemic that tackles a wide range of ills facing today’s porn stars. It’s a surreal vision quest filled with sex, politicians, sex, trolls, sex, dead people, sex, sleazy lawyers, sex, priests, and so much more. Beautifully shot, the story follows a wild walkabout that Tabitha takes through her desert landscape of her mind as she tries to protect her psyche from a society that has violated her mind in every way possible.
The film is woven around the framing device of Tabitha, a prostitute, and Nick Manning in a hotel room. Recent history has proven that the loudest defenders of morality are among the biggest perverts, and Nick plays a conservative politician of that ilk, an anti-porn crusader who fucks prostitutes on the sly. Tabitha’s vision quest is told as a story to Nick, each scene a representation of something that Tabitha must overcome as she fights to regain her sanity.
The movie does a good job of delivering a message without being overly preachy, keeping the dialogue slim and to the point before moving on to that which the movie celebrates — the freedom of a beautiful woman who enjoys her sexuality. —Scott Ross, XBIZ Editors Choice
Sanatorium is available at: