Featuring Derrick Pierce, Michael Vegas, Kristen Scott, and Nina North
Within the last few years, porn has seen resurgence in family fantasy and what many people have started to call “Faux-cest.” This isn’t a new thing in porn. There are plenty of films depicting brothers and sisters lusting after one another, and irregular relationships between daughters and fathers. Nowadays, everyone is a step-relative. There’s swapping daughters and blackmailing your step mom, but within all of these films there is a layer of campiness within the fictional world, so we excuse the faux-cest because we know it is a fantasy. That’s what porn is supposed to be, right? Porn is an escape from real life where we meet the sexy nurse who is ready to give a naive patient the physical of his life. We meet the babysitter, the pizza boy, or any number of real-life characters that stop doing their jobs and become wanton, desirous beings. Most of the characters we see in these situations are non-threatening and sort of silly, but when you throw a cop into that fantasy it completely changes the sexual dynamic, and it loses all sense of camp because cops are authority figures. They are supposed to protect us and they have power over us. Sometimes a bad cop can get away with whatever they want to.
This is what is wonderful and terrifying about Indirect Relations. Derrick Pierce gives a stellar performance as Detective Randy Rogers, who is known as the quintessential bad cop. He has similarities to other bad cops we have seen on screen. For example, he has a very bad reputation down at the station. He was known to cross boundaries with his informants, and stories of serious abuses of power ran rampant at the station. When his wife left him, his partner put in for a transfer, and then it became apparent to many that Detective Rogers was being inappropriate with most of the female staff at the station. Complaints were filed to his lieutenant, but since he solved so many cases, his superiors overlooked most of his bad behaviors. Unlike many of the other bad cops we may have seen in movies, Detective Rogers has been surrounded by lurid rumors involving his daughter for a few years. In fact, rumors had been circulating about why his wife left him, and many suspected he had an inappropriate relationship with his teenage daughter.
A bad cop can make you do things you would never do unless you were manipulated into it. Michael Vegas’ character learns the hard way that his debt to Detective Rogers may never be fulfilled. What really stands out in this scene is the control Detective Rogers has over the other characters and the way he corrupts innocent people who he has sworn to protect, both civilians and family. Often in porn, the men are supporting characters for the women, but this scene challenges that norm. The alpha/beta relationship between the male characters sets a sinister tone that is often lacking from this genre. This is a very bold move for Pretty Dirty studio. Indirect Relations pushes the boundaries of a genre that we have come to feel safe in, which writer Bree Mills and co-director Craven Moorehead warn us not to get too comfortable in anymore. Even good men can be made to do bad things.