Skid Roche

As with director David Stanley’s Crescendo 2012, Melt believes that the right place for porno is woven through the tale of a New Age journey, with themes of betrayal, death, unconditional love, altered perceptions, drugs, alternate reality, and redemption. But where Crescendo sold its intentionally humorous pretensions with goofy, wacky party favors, Melt is dead serious, a movie that’s really about death far more than Crescendo was really about the apocalypse. Melt’s pretensions are largely forgivable because its emotional content comes across as more earnest than even a pretty good indie feature, and because it actually requires a fair amount of brain power to watch. If your attention lapses, there’s no way you’ll follow the story.

And the story, miracle of miracles, goofy as it is, is worth it. This may not be Carlos Castaneda, but it’s an interesting experiment, equal parts trickster myth and death’s-head homily. It’s not a slam dunk, but it kicks the ass of every indie feature I’ve seen this year, which is a testament both to how shitty a job indie features are doing of reaching their own meager standards, and how good a job porn is doing of exceeding them.

Read the full review at Eros Zine.