Love and Other Mishaps by Digital Playground - review by Kayla

"Love and Other Mishaps" is a Digital Playground release starring Stoya. Other lead characters are Scott Nails, Sasha Gray, Christian XXX, Tony DeSergio, Mick Blue, Nicole Ray, and Mr. Pete. There are a total of five sex scenes included on this DVD. This DVD ends up being an hour and a half long. The two directors are Celeste and Robby D. This movie is Blu-Ray only; I thought it was a double set with Blu-Ray and regular DVD, but this one does only come with the Blu-Ray version. This movie is supposed to be a feature, story-focused movie.

The coloring was annoying (explained below), but the sound was decent. The actor's ended up speaking pretty quietly in comparison with the actual sex, so it ended up being a bit annoying to mess with the volume to try and understand the story while still not broadcasting to our neighbors that we were watching porn.

One of my biggest annoyances is the camera. I think the camera crew was trying to take advantage of the high definition of Blu-Ray, but it came out looking like more of a mess. The camera spent a good chunk of the sex scenes zoomed in extremely close to the two actors. When you're zoomed on an actor's stomach, it's pretty impossible to guess what the guy happens to be doing for oral sex. Along with this, there's a ton of up-close shots during the sex itself.

Along with this, the color was messed with in the main house for the sex scenes. All of the bedding and walls are white, so it naturally will give the actors a washed out look. After that washed out look, the directors chose to edit the lighting even further. The girls come across as white as ghosts, and the guys are pretty pale too. This isn't a horrible problem except when it comes to Stoya. Stoya has black pubic and head hair, and it looks downright awkward to see the pure black pubic hair up against the ridiculously white skin. When you add a guy's ejaculate to it, it looks even more awkward. This white, faded look is in two out of the five scenes, so it's not something you can really avoid.

When it comes to the story itself, it was definitely lacking. It had something to do with the fact that Mick was in love with Stoya while the both of them were in another relationship. The story was not flushed out at all, and the trailer basically shows almost all of the dialogue in the movie. (Bit of an exaggeration, but not by much) I think Stoya was in love with two people...or something. Honestly, again, the dialogue and story weren't complete enough to really understand what was going on. The sad part is that the movie really tried to be "deep", but with the lack of dialogue, their attempt at something with a moral didn't work out. A good chunk of the movie was spent in sex (obviously) with only about ten minutes, tops, being spent on the dialogue. The acting also left a bit to be desired. Maybe it was the script, but the dialogue rarely felt natural or flowing, and it was really hard to feel like this was realistic.

The sex was okay. It was nothing special honestly. I wouldn't say that I found it arousing, and I spent a good time being annoyed over the fact that the camera provided very little zoomed out shots, so it was hard to understand what was going on in the movie at times. The girls were pretty vocal, but it wasn't any screeching or annoying noises. I wish I could hear a bit more from the guys, but the guys in this movie are more vocal than in most. In this movie, though, at least, the guys spent quite a bit giving oral sex to the females. I didn't get to watch much of it because of the camera, but there was a bit of attention given to the oral sex. Of course, more attention was given to the blowjobs, but at least it was included. The sex followed a pretty predictable formula though. The characters got naked, oral sex was given to the female, oral sex to the male, then intercourse. There was some 69 scenes and some neat sex positions yet though.

Stoya ended up getting around in this movie. She was in three out of the five scenes. Stoya starts the movie up with sex with Scott Nails, then we move on to Sasha Grey and Mick Blue. After that, Stoya goes to the bar and has sex with the bartender. (Mr. Pete) Two bar patrons (Who, by dialogue, have had sex with Stoya in the past) then have sex in the bar. (Scott Nails and Nicole Ray) To finish up the movie, Stoya has sex with Christian XXX to rub it in Mick's face that she isn't in love with him.

Special Features include a photo gallery, a Behind the Scenes feature (Which includes Jamaican wedding march music. wtf?) (It also includes Digital Playground's website address...except spelled wrong) , trailer for other Digital Playground movies, and contact information. You can also choose to watch the movie by Chapter Selection, but the chapters are named 1, 2, 3, etc. instead of being named after the actors and actresses that the sex scene features.

I can't say I'll ever re-watch this movie again. Sasha Grey looked very cute (and her make-up was sexy), but the story is so lacking that I end up getting frustrated trying to watch it. If you have a fetish for Stoya, this one is worth the watch, but in general, there are better porns out there than this "feature-focused" movie. (There's nothing wrong with porns that are lacking in plot, but when you name your porn "Love and Other Mishaps", it's a given that a plot is involved.)