the whole shebang

scene title:  girls night in performers:  amber d, julia rain site:  viv thomas (metart) production credits:  sandra shine (dir.), frank mirror (ed.) trailer l: amber d, r: julia rain perhaps the slightest and least compelling of sandra shine's directorial efforts for the vivthomas brand this month. it's beautifully shot, but even by the story-free standards of the site the intro is lackadaisical: houseware-porn closeups of amber d preparing popcorn for a tv night, then she sits down on a couch and pretends to watch tv, julia rain joins her, the popcorn goes everywhere, julia plucks it out of amber's nightie, they kiss. maybe if either of them demonstrated a scintilla of personality it might be more engaging, but they're both very new (their only previous credits seem to have been for sexart in the past month) and although they perform sex perfectly adequately (sandra shine can nearly always be relied on for that), their total lack of communica...

scene title:  love is in the air performers:  ivy rein, sarah cute site:  viv thomas (metart) production credits:  sandra shine (dir.), frank mirror (ed.) trailer l: ivy rein, r: sarah cute there's little to say about sandra shine's third entry of the month, and second featuring russian newbie ivy rein. her hungarian partner here, sarah cute, seems to have more credits, but is also relatively new, so it was interesting to see ivy taking the, ahem, reins in their encounter; the last time i saw her, with elin flame, she was more passive. the photography remains exquisite, with a warmth and subtlety that functions as something of a rebuke to the more static and chillier vibe of the fox/veller team that is shine's primary competition at viv thomas. a yardwork montage over sentimental guitar plucks leads to perhaps the fakest bonking of heads i've ever seen when they both reach for the recycling; ivy kisses sarah's forehead to make it better, which ...

scene title:  honey, i'm home performers:  blue angel, helena moeller site:  viv thomas (metart) production credits:  sandra shine (dir.), frank mirror (ed.) trailer l: blue angel, r: helena moeller it's ridiculous to paint all of european porn production with as broad a brush as i frequently do, but to be fair to me i'm only looking at girl/girl productions, which do tend to be fairly samey despite a certain amount of envelope-pushing from a number of different directions. one direction that will never push the envelope is viv thomas. even their best director, sandra shine, is content to select and light a location to maximize its sensuous beauty, dress two beautiful women beautifully, and shoot them undressing one another and having patient, uninflected sex with the most beautiful photography. this is old-school glamour porn in modern dress, and there's nothing wrong with it: it's just that, compared to the narrative drive and vivid personali...

scene title:  take the shot performers:  elin flame, ivy rein site:  viv thomas (metart) production credits:  sandra shine (dir.), frank mirror (ed.) trailer l: elin flame, r: ivy rein what a difference even a slight bit of scene-setting makes. the last time i reviewed a viv thomas scene, i couldn't be invested because the two women had no reason to have sex, or indeed to not have sex; they were just there. this time, we open on elin flame and ivy rein playing billiards (not well), and the loser has to dance for the other. (they are both russian, but they speak their few lines in english.) the dance turns into a kiss, and so we're off to the races. part of it also is that sandra shine is undoubtedly a better director than fox and veller: a former performer, she knows how to light and shoot her models to their advantage, and loves to play with deep focus, depth of field, and even reflections to keep the visuals interesting. her shot compositions...