I’m doing something a little different with this review. Instead of, say, writing something properly, I decided to take running notes while I watched. It works out for both of us, because I get to be lazy and not really try, and you get to the experience of being there. Or not.
I should first mention that I don’t watch porn for the plot, and I do not and in fact can not understand why anyone would. As you might have guessed, this porno has a plot, so that’s a pretty big strike against it right there. Fortunately, someone at VCA must agree with me, because one of the “bonus features” is a “sex only alternate version.” Someone deserves a little credit for thinking of that. At any rate, the regular version of the movie doesn’t have all that much of a plot, and the women featured here are all unbelievably hot. Allow me to repeat that: the women are beyond belief. I mention it twice since it is absolutely the only redeeming quality to the movie.
Why do you watch porn? Is it for the plot? The acting? The (non-sexual) stunts? The dancing? How about car and motorcycle chase scenes?
What’s that you say? You watch porn for the sex?! You want to look at hot girls fucking in interesting ways, and maybe just relax for ten minutes and jerk off all over yourself? Yeah, me too! Unfortunately I guess that no one told Joanna Angel, the director and star of this movie, because she has some very strange ideas about what should be included in an adult movie. And how to film one. The sex here, what there is of it, is lifeless and dull, and the cinematography and lighting are fairly terrible and often utterly counterproductive and frustrating. If there is one thing that a porno should not be, it’s frustrating.
If I were to wildly oversimplify things, I could put the kinds of content we cover at altporn.net into two camps: artsy erotica and bonerfying pornography. In reality most of it falls somewhere between the two, with sites like FatalBeauty.com floating over near planet Artsy Erotica, and movies like Joanna’s Angels in a shallow orbit around the celestial sphere of Porn.
Alter Ego, the new film from Carlos Batts, is very, very much in the artsy erotica camp; properly emphasized, the ARTSY erotica camp. AE is a carnival of sensuality and skin and bent gender in slow motion, reminiscent of David Lynch and, less frequently, Andy Warhol.
AE is Carlos Batts’ tribute to April Flores/Fatty D, the voluptuous erotic performer and “super muse” who slides effortlessly between phat azz lowrider chica, living porcelain doll, and deadly stitched-up horror vixen. Batts’ moody, ethereal imagery captures a wide-ranging series of Flores’ erotic experiences, some of them sexy, some of them disturbing. Slow-paced and set to a stew of electro and hip-hop, it’s the kind of thing you watch in a quiet room at 2am when no one’s awake.
The altporn scene is just taking off in the mainstream adult industry, and it’s likely that we’re going to get a lot more punk/goth porn vids on the market. I’m not complaining, because I dig watching punk rawk girls get it on bigtime, but films like Alter Ego are important contrasts to easier-to-swallow porn. We need works like this to remind ourselves of the wide-ranging possibilities of erotic art.
When I first watched Tristan Taormino’s House of Ass, all I could think was “How could you pack this much porn on one DVD?” With 2.5 hours of feature footage, 20 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, 16 minutes of slide-shows, 16 minutes of bonus scenes, and about 15 minutes of trailers, it’s a supersized meal of naughty goodness. Plus, it gives the viewer some interesting insights into the lives and thoughts of adult performers.
Watching the first DVD release from Sapphos Girls, I sorta felt like the white guy at the club wearing FUBU gear — it wasn’t made for me, but I certainly enjoy pretending it was. It’s a choice piece of independently-produced erotica by women, for women, with an emphasis on authenticity.
Eon McKai finally brings us a professional hardcore movie that appeals to those of us who are not looking for standard porn stars.
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trouble: i'm so glad to see you back, altporn.net!!!...
