If you've grown accustomed to writer Mitch Spinelli's ruminating Pinteresque forays, then Big Town will prove familiar urban territory.

In a wrenching and emotional performance, Jon Dough plays a character who's been at the mercy of life's mutability. A former member of the WASP elite with big dreams and an even bigger bank account, Dough's home is now an alleyway refuge for drunks, pimps and hookers. A wino, he's reduced to battling over a bottle of Thunderbird with bag lady Rebecca Bardoux, and for him, life's truths are now as elemental as requesting a blowjob from Bardoux without so much as a bat of an eye.

This scene, as well as all (or most) of the sex is ram-rod effective. Dough's big moments come at the beginning of the video and, at the tail end, with a volcanic soliloquy when he encounters "Marilyn Monroe" (played eerily on-the-money by Tina Tyler). Most of the time in between, though, Dough basically catches forty winks, merely serving as an intrigued bystander while the creatures of the night romp merrily at play in his backyard.

Celeste and Woody Long appear to be newlyweds, but Celeste fucks like she's in a convent. Woody only gets to probe her ass with a saliva-driven dildo. Some wedding night. Whore Nikki Sinn enjoins cop Jake Williams to fuck her like one, and he complies after which Nikki engages Dough in a game of verbal non-sequitur in which he tells her he's a biochemist. Semantic catch-as-catch-can also seems to be the fate of pimp Steven St. Croix and hooker Heather Lee when he interrogates her about her clients. The sex speaks louder than words, however, when St. Croix rams it to Lee doggie style.

Tyler and Dough is a truly intriguing scene with Tina doing an effective "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" turn before she and Dough culminate the anachronism with some spirited doggie humping.

The question raised by thesexual abstinence of Woody and Celeste is perhaps the only drawback to Big Town. Its visuals are compelling and effective, and director Anthony Spinelli continues to draw out the best acting performances in adult video. To that end, Dough has a lock on a best acting nomination with the depth and complexity granted his character in the allowable time frame of adult video. (This and Spinelli's The Face are Dough's best video performances this year.)

A definite must-have title in your Spinelli collection.