Us x Her

I’ve seen enough Vivamax films that I can compare them to each other by now. And on that metric, Us x Her is pretty successful. This is probably the “best” Vivamax movie I’ve seen. For me, that just means it doesn’t spend too much time doing inherently unsexy things in this softcore feature. Comparing it to other movies outside of the Vivamax canon doesn’t warrant the same response. This movie is still bad, I’m just glad it didn’t intercut sex scenes with subplots about spousal or parental abuse.

Dave has it all at the start of the movie. He’s a successful basketball player with a beautiful wife named Mari who is expecting their first child. Unknown to the couple, Lila is obsessed with Dave. She watches any online content about him while masturbating. Unfortunately, the pandemic isn’t kind to Dave. An injury plus the shutdown of businesses and workplaces means he’s out of work. And Mari suffers a miscarriage which creates an uncrossable distance between the couple. It’s at this point that Lila makes her move. She messages Dave who is more than willing to cheat with a hot woman he met on the internet. But Lila further insinuates herself into Dave’s life. However, when she meets Mari, something shifts.

Dave and Mari don’t exactly develop much throughout the movie. Both are pretty passive characters. What drives the plot forward is Lila’s rapid shifts in motive and interest. She goes from obsessing over Dave, to taking several steps of revenge against him. Then, she changes again. As she tells Dave, her priority becomes Mari and keeping Mari “safe” from Dave. Look, this movie isn’t good enough for these changes in character motivation to feel anything other than abrupt and random. But I am at least happy at where it ends up. I think Lila’s care for Mari is genuine. And obviously, I am more interested in watching a movie about love and support between women as opposed to their relationships to men.

Dave is pretty central to all of this. This is expected but still not welcome given me and my website’s interests. We get a lot of Dave’s feelings about Lila and/or Mari. He cries when Mari basically manipulates him into letting Lila move in by pointing out his own history of adultery. This is pretty unethical non-monogamy. I wish the movie ended with the women moving on from Dave altogether. But I know I am not the typical audience of a Vivamax skin flick so I’ll take my wins where I can get them.

Much of Us x Her is a passably unremarkable softcore flick. The ending is kind of weird, though. For a moment, Dave considers killing a sleeping Lila. But Mari interrupts so they have a threesome. This cuts to some sort of dream/fantasy sequence where the characters are on a stage and acting out a murder while wearing nude leotards. The last minutes of the movie cut back and forth between Dave’s weirdly artsy stage fantasy and the unhealthy throuple just banging it out. I don’t think this artistic choice is well-executed, but it is at least something notable.

Us x Her is pretty similar to many other poly-adjacent films about a sexy couple introducing another woman. The best thing I can say about it is that it didn’t monumentally fuck anything up. I’ve seen my fair share of movies that fail to meet that requirement. However, not fucking up doesn’t mean Us x Her did anything particularly good, either. There’s little quality character work, writing or cinematography. It’s a pretty disposable flick. But as a piece of 2020s softcore, that’s always what it was supposed to be anyways.

Overall rating: 4.6/10

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