Casual Encounters  – Wicked Pictures – Director – David Lord – Cast – Jessica drake, Olivia Austin, Romi Rain, Derrick Pierce. Mr. Pete, Marcus London, Eric Masterson, Steven St. Croix.

The alluring and extremely talented jessica drake stars in this moody, dark look at a woman’s search of sexual discovery within herself. In a film that has a lot of twists and turns and a haunting style under director David Lord, Ms. drake and the cast give viewers an exceptional experience. The way this film begins its journey you are taken right in and along for the entire ride and join Ms. drake’s character Julie’s search for sexual discovery.

It all begins as we see Julie, music in the background curled up on the sofa with a glass of wine and her laptop.Julie goes on line, using the name Ann, searching for some companionship and comes across a site called “Casual Encounters”. She sees a couple that make her laugh and one that does nothing, but then as she continues she comes across Derrick (Derrick Pierce) who seems to be just the one who is right for her to begin this discovery she is ready to embark on. There is no dialogue but we get to see the exchange on line take place. Julie takes a deep breath wondering what is next. As the sun rises in the morning the credits roll and we are treated to a nice shower scene with Julie. Then she see the response from Derrick who is interested and tells her where to meet him that evening.

Julie shows up at the bar and looks over other couples in the place when Derrick finally arrives. After he sits down it doesn’t take long for the two of them to connect and Julie actually is the aggressor. They get up to leave, but instead of  leaving the club, they head to the bathroom and go at it hot and heavy right there. This opens a sexual door for Julie that she didn’t know was there. She sends Derrick a message saying she is all in and wants to see where this takes her. Of course Derrick is pleased and plans the next step in Julie’s journey.

I will tell you right here that there is basically no dialogue in this movie at all. You have to read the e-mails and texts they send one another. Rather than the dialogue, the messages, the expressions and the physical reactions and emotions are what are captured and make this work so well. Now that you know this, next Julie is in a parking garage on Derrick’s instructions and he tells her via text to fuck the next man she sees (Marcus London). After it is done he asks how she feels and she has a lot of mixed emotions but wants to continue. He tells her to go home and will contact her. The next scene is where Derrick tells her to go to a motel. Once she is there she is told to just sit and watch Derrick and Romi Rain get it on. But there is much more to come in this journey that will take her places and doing things she never imagined. There is also one major twist to this story involving Olivia Austin that is so well done and conceived you never see it coming and the eventual ending.

There is so much more I could go on about but I won’t as I want you, the viewer, to take this journey with Julie and see and feel for yourself what it is like. The haunting music, the lighting and the settings all work perfectly with the absence of dialogue. The five sex scenes that take place really sizzle and cover just about everything that our main character is made to take part in. The dogging scene is particularly high energy and powerful. It is an emotional, gripping exercise in sexual awakening that is carried out exquisitely by Ms. drake, taking on one of the best roles she has ever played in her award winning, storied career. Fact is the entire cast plays their parts extremely well with Derrick Pierce also shining in his master-ful role. Also loved the clips of past Wicked films as different TV shows when Julie has the TV on, very clever. The cinematography is well executed, the nighttime visuals particularly add to the mood.

This is one of those films you will watch more than once for a variety of reasons and always find something new and exciting. I very strongly recommend “Casual Encounters” our Friday 5 Star Feature on AAN.

Review by Art Koch, National Features & DVD Editor, NightMoves Magazine and AAN