Director: Scott J Ramsey
Writer: Hannah Katherine Jost, Scott J Ramsey (Screenplay)
Starring: Hope Raymond, Eliza Boivin, Brian Smick, Zachary Cowan, Valerie Fachman, Hans Probst
Plot: The chair of a mysterious Foundation whose charity balls double as masked sex parties does everything in her power to protect her darkest secret: the hidden camera in her guest bathroom.
Tagline – Welcome to the Devil’s Ball
Runtime: 2 Hours 7 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: X starts as we get to enter one of Christian better known as X (Raymond) secret parties, this time Stella (Boivin) has gained entrance, needing to learn the rules quickly to have a chance of fitting in.
As Christian looks to regain the control of the parties she is hosting, where she watches the video she keeps in the bathroom, feeding her pleasures. Christian works with her partner Danny (Smick) who helps arrange the parties to improve things, which will see Christian start to lose control of the thing she needs the most.
Thoughts on X
Characters & Performances – Christian is the hostess of a monthly sex party, she selects the masked guests to bring people together to feed her addiction. She has been filming the bathroom at her parties, hoping to catch things to give her pleasure, only to see this get caught up in ruining her reputation. We do get to see the deeper side to this character and just how damaged she is. Hope Raymond a good job in this leading role, filled with the confidence for the show and the insecurities away from the audience. Stella is the mysterious new person to attend the party, who breaks the rules without knowing them. She offers something Christian hasn’t had before, while keeping plenty of secrets about herself. Eliza Boivin makes this mysterious character interesting in the world we are entering. We do get to meet the person Danny who helps Christian arrange the parties, along with the people who are always looking for a way to make a name for themselves.
Story – The story here follows a hostess of masked sex parties that sees her life turned upside when her own secret gets revealed to the guests. This is a story that will focus on a world where people have more money than sense, with them needing to pay for the exclusive sex parties. It has the concepts of trying to make sure you have more power than anything else. We mostly get to follow someone who has created a world where they are in complete control, getting everything they want, slowly fall away from them. For the length of the story, this is too long, we could have easily chopped this story down to 90 minutes, we didn’t need a 2 hour plus movie.
Themes – X is an erotic thriller that dives into the world of masked sex parties, using the locations to show this being an upper-class event. The side of the story where Christian loses control, could have become more intense, but otherwise, it adds to the thrilling side of the film.
X is a thriller that shows the desire to maintain power in the upper-class exclusive parties.
