Tag Archives: Presley Hart

A Poorly Written Play

by Rich Moreland, November 2013

Girlfriends Films’ Homecoming is a well-written and superbly acted story that speaks to the heart of an issue that dominates our culture today: the American family and how we perceive it.

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homecoming boxcoverHomecoming tells the story of a dysfunctional household that transitions from the façade of a “perfect family” into an honest coming together of what they really are.

The oldest daughter of Tony (Steven St. Croix) and Cora (Zoe Holloway) is getting married. Gloria (Casey Calvert) brings home her beau (Michael Vegas) for the expected approval of her parents. Trouble is that gazillionaire Bradley is rude, arrogant, and insensitive. To complicate matters, Gloria is unsure of her sexuality though she is quite certain she doesn’t love Bradley. Admitting to her true feelings is the issue because pleasing her parents is Gloria’s mission.

Homecoming functions on different levels. First, there is Tony’s story. He’s nouveau riche with a secret—an illegitimate daughter. His life is further complicated by a wife who has given up on their marriage. Next is Bitty (Jenna J. Ross) the youngest daughter who has no interest in her voyeur husband, nerdy psychologist Ron (Chris Slater). Bitty’s preferences lean toward girls and she reunites with an old high school friend, Norma (Raven Rockette) in a highly charged sexual encounter of the type Girlfriends’ fans have come to expect. Then there is Jim (Ralph Long), the real anchor in the family and symbolic of all their dysfunctions. He’s an adopted son and a cross-dressing military reject who is fairly useless in his father’s eyes. Because he is not of their linage, Jim is a breath of fresh air and the only family member who refuses to deceive himself.

Gloria, Presley, and the brutish Bradley Photo courtesy of Fleshbot

Bradley, Gloria, and Presley
Photo courtesy of Fleshbot

The sex scenes are built around the narrative. Each is a reflection of the players in it and the situations of their lives. The first involves Bradley, Gloria, and her friend (Presley Hart). Bradley is brutish, dragging his fiancée into the bedroom and throwing her between Presley’s legs. Gloria gets a “taste” of same sex love while Bradley satisfies himself, nailing his wife-to-be as if she were a dog. No matter, Gloria is too busy exploring her friend to care. The scene appears forced and awkward to the viewer but it’s designed that way. Gloria is unsure of what she is finding and is hesitant but apparently eager. If the lovers were fluid and content, the rest of the narrative would be unnecessary.

The second scene involves a girl/girl between Bitty and Norma. It’s a throwback to their teen years, they’ve done this before. Bitty tells Norma to sneak over and “throw rocks at my window.” Very high school, but that’s the point. The sex is top notch because the viewer’s fantasy drifts back to teenagers in a clandestine, surreptitious lust-fest. The girls are carnally authentic (Norma reminds Bitty she’s so wild) and, unlike a lot of lesbian oriented film nowadays, there are no sex toys to distract the viewer.

Fantasy Time Warp

Director B. Skow pushes envelopes in this story. He is helped considerably by some quality acting and the effective use of symbols scattered throughout the narrative that reinforce his message.

Cora talks of pushing the kids to win trophies and how they never really enjoyed their accomplishments. Her family must be like a prom queen’s complexion on the night of the big dance, no doubts and no blemishes. B. Skow contemptuously reminds us that this little brood is second place at best. Twice in the film’s opening are second place trophies and medallions spotted by the camera. In a moving emotional performance toward the film’s end, Cora confronts the family’s impending destruction, a fragile union Gloria was obliged to save with her material marriage. “We’re supposed to be the perfect family,” she tells Gloria with total exasperation. Later when truth can no longer be avoided, Cora laments to her husband, “We’re actors in a poorly written play with curtains I’m afraid to close.”

What is the watchword in any twelve step program? Admission is the first move toward recovery.

The family lives in a fantasy time warp, as B. Skow subtly reveals. Pay close attention to the music, it offers guideposts throughout the drama. Are we really, after all, watching a television show?

Twice in the story, the first time in the sensational sex scene between Gloria and her brother, and the second in the final one between mom and dad, there is a muted sentinel with a blank stare: an old TV with rabbit ears. This relic is a reminder of bygone days of “perfect” families whose triumphs were always guaranteed, but covered in a thin veil of cultural fraud. Did not the Cleavers of Mayfield and the Cunninghams of Milwaukee, fictitiously rooted in the 1950s and 1960s, shape our values?

But what did “perfect” mean in a time when those who were different were silent?

Jim and Gloria just getting started. Photo courtesy of Fleshbot

Jim and Gloria acting out her fantasy.
Photo courtesy of Fleshbot

B. Skow nails this point with Jim and Gloria. Casey Calvert and Ralph Long are the heroes of this drama and both turn in credible acting performances. Ralph is endearing while Casey is a diamond in the rough. She may be known for her hard-hitting on-screen sex, but her range of expression carries the story at crucial moments. Their sex is the best of the film, by the way. He’s in a blonde wig so Casey can fantasize and find her way through a morass of sexual confusion. As for the sex itself, Casey is an oral and anal princess, handling the sometimes dicey ATM as a true professional.

Energizing Vanilla

The last sexual encounter brings the film full circle. Tony admits to his affair with a local waitress and Cora forgives. Their passion for each other is how this family began. The viewer can only imagine these two at work on each other years ago creating the microscopic cell that would become Gloria, their hoped for savior.

Tony and Cora remember how the family started. Photo courtesy of Fleshbot

Tony and Cora remember how they started the family.
Photo courtesy of Fleshbot

Now their mature sexuality captures the screen, a sweaty, energizing vanilla that balances the reminder of Biddy and Norma’s illicit teenaged exploration. In between we have the fetish notion of Jim and Gloria while the first scene puts the stupid frat boy stamp on Bradley’s garish pounding of Gloria who is destined for a revelation of her own. Like families, sex comes in all varieties.

Homecoming is not a family gathering, but a family rebirth with a raucous and joyous ending. Real emotions have eluded this band of relatives for years; the sex in the film is forthright and reminds us that a good dose of self-examination is necessary to maintain happiness however we define it. Our sexual kaleidoscope is waiting to be explored and its’ time we closed the curtain on our culture’s poorly written play of sexual limitations and dishonesty. Homecoming’s cast of characters and their director are willing to show us the way.

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From the Performer’s View

Not often do I get a chance to talk about a film with the leading performer in it. However, Casey Calvert was willing to reflect on some of my thoughts about Homecoming. Here’s a bit of our conversation.

I am interested if the sex was scripted.

“The sex scenes weren’t scripted at all,” Casey says. “They were shot in the standard way Girlfriends likes their sex scenes, with just two people going for it.”

Casey Calvert Photo courtesy of Scott Church

Casey Calvert
Photo courtesy of Scott Church

She goes on to talk about B. Skow and how she enjoys working for him because “of the way he shoots sex.” “He likes natural, genuine sex,” Casey says, and “runs three cameras so it’s easy to always be open to one of them.”

I remember Dan O’Connell talking about his philosophy of having only three crew people to minimize disruptions. I ask Casey about interruptions during her scenes. B. Skow “stays quiet” unless a problem arises, she says. There was only one break during her scene with Ralph Long and that was related to the hot lights and his wig!

I’m curious about the first sex scene with Michael Vegas and Presley Hart. Michael as Bradley is a brute who forces his wife-to-be’s mouth into her friend’s crotch. Casey’s role is built on Gloria’s hesitancy about her possible love for girls. She is uncertain, making the sex awkward. Of all the scenes in the film, this one is the most artistically constructed because it is vital to the story.

Casey mentions that Michael did exactly what B. Skow wanted, “just fuck and pop as quickly as possible.” He did his job really well, she says. Casey comments that she doesn’t personally know Presley Hart that well and that contributed positively to the scene. Gloria’s ambiguity about her sexual preferences  was “what I was trying for,” Casey says.

For viewers who only watch a porn movie for the sex, nuances like those in this scene are sadly lost. Casey remembers an online viewer who commented that he didn’t understand why she works with girls when she doesn’t seem to be turned on by them. His remark was disappointing, Casey says. My advice to that viewer is to watch the scene again and perceive it from the perspective of an artistic statement that moves the the film forward.

Finally Casey compliments Ralph Long for doing a spot on job in the film. She adds he was also “a great PA [production assistant].” A man of many talents in a film of talented people, I might add.

I’m not one to give out ratings or stars for movies. But I highly recommend Homecoming. It’s dramatically refreshing because it is not average porn fare.

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Tears and Triumph: Smash Pictures’ Diary of Love

by Rich Moreland, April 2013

A young man lies comatose in a hospital bed, the victim of a car crash. A year has passed and the likelihood of his recovery is fading. Perhaps reading aloud a story of survival will conquer the dark world that imprisons his brain and his soul. Maybe he will hear. For the young woman who visits him daily, that is her desperate hope.

So goes the premise of Dairy of Love, a Smash Pictures release directed by Jim Powers and starring Presley Hart as Allie and Richie Calhoun as Noah. It’s a romantic tale of embattled love.

For porn fans, it celebrates the “couples” genre. Not gonzo, not even close. Best of all, it is superbly produced with acting that reaches beyond the norm for adult film.

From the view of this critic, Jim Powers’ work is sensational. He melds story and actor into a cohesive unit that has garnered accolades from the industry. Diary of Love received several nominations at the 2013 AVN awards this past January. Mostly recently, it was honored at the by XRCO (X Rated Critics Organization) as Best Dramatic Parody.

A Million Thoughts

When Noah and Allie first meet, he’s serious almost to a fault and she’s well-versed in flippant responses.

Allie, “a rich girl from the Bay Area,” the narrator tells us, has everything. Noah, employed at a local cement plant, struggles to make ends meet. As their relationship develops, the camera mirrors the emotional exchanges between the lovers. In an early scene, they are walking down the street, teasing and flirting. Powers’ lens is in motion with them, circling their playfulness as it whirls with seduction. The camera is in a fluid state, capturing their attempt to find their way through the stormy path they create for each other.

Later, as the summer progresses and their pairing becomes more than an acquaintance, Powers adds a humorous touch for gonzo fans. Allie and Noah share an ice cream cone (vanilla, naturally) and she ends up with ice cream all over her mouth and nose (not the eyes, of course). It’s the only “facial” in the film. Pop shots are directed at tummies in this story!

Presenting the sex as a woman likes it, Diary of Love emphasizes negotiation and communication between the lovers. When she is finally ready to get physical, Allie wants inside Noah’s brain, just as she now seeks to reach him in a sterile hospital room. What is he thinking?

“I have a million thoughts in my head and you’re acting like this is an everyday thing,” she shouts at him before they get it on. Of course it isn’t, but that’s not totally clear at this point.

Allie immediately apologizes for her petulance, telling Noah she just wants this first time “to be perfect.” How many women have sought reassurance that their self-generated fantasy of the “right moment” may actually contain flashes of male sincerity?

Later when they finally make love, Presley Hart’s sensuality splashes across the screen and heats up the set. Her scene is the hottest in the movie, but only a few degrees ahead of an earlier encounter that features Lily Labeau.

This tale has its share of bumps in the road. Allie’s mom ultimately voices her disapproval and successfully squashes her daughter’s summer fling, sending Allie east to college and eventually law school. But Noah never forgets and the quest to lure Allie back into his arms is the rest of the story. But for that, you’ll have to see the film.

Boxcover Courtesy of Smash Pictures

Boxcover Courtesy of Smash Pictures

A Drama Queen?

Diary of Love insists that the story drive the sex, not the other way round.

Laborious minutes of endless sex are thankfully abandoned in this film. The intimacy that does take place is carefully choreographed to reflect the viewer’s reality. Nothing is acrobatic, there’s no anal anywhere and no oral thrusting to gag the girls. Abundant kissing, male-on-female oral, and a bit of cuddling in the afterglow, highlight each encounter. Of interest is handholding during the penetration shots, romantic and bonding.

It is sex as couples experience it, tender without being slutty, featuring natural bodies. Included, by the way, are males hired for their acting chops, not the size of their endowment. However, there’s a downer note for fans of fully shaven girls. Only Presley Hart is smooth as silk, indicative perhaps of a trend toward the well trimmed bush, albeit for better or worse.

This film has memorable sequences.

Kimberly Kane, who plays one of Noah’s lovers, reflects a woman’s need to break into a man’s emotional vault. She reminds him that a woman can look into a man’s eyes and tell if he “sees” her. Unfortunately for Kimberly, her facial expression reveals who Noah sees.

Allie’s mother, played by Nikki Charm, confronts her daughter with the mistake she is making—taking up with a man outside her social class. Allie’s protests fail to move this mountain. “Don’t be a drama queen!” mom shouts. She is determined to prevent Allie from a disastrous life-altering choice. Indeed, practicality often trumps true love in real life.

Incidentally, Kimberly and Nikki handle dialogue better than anyone in the cast, including Presley Hart who received a best actress nomination. The film is worth a look to catch the authenticity of these veteran performers.

The film’s first sexual encounter between Fin (Logan Pierce) and Sarah (Lily LaBeau) is sensational. Lily is a stunner, as porn fans already know. But it’s the scene’s park setting that produces a clever touch. Behind Lily’s reverse cowgirl sequence is a retaining wall of logs pounded into the ground. They are of different lengths, nestled one beside the other. How appropriate for the repeated “pounding” Sarah is enjoying! Match a log with each thrust and the park becomes an animated participant in the shoot.

Speaking of directorial genius, a couple of other shots should not be missed. The emphasis on male-female sexual equality is in clear focus with an overhead view of Noah and his two playmates, war widows Kimberly Kane and Lia Lor. (Noah fought in Afghanistan and is trying to adjust to life after death. Fin is killed in action, taking a little bit of Noah with him).

They are a sexual threesome. In this shot, Noah is lying between them. The trio forms a barely perceptible triangle with their bodies, signaling that they are a comfort for each other and a hint at where this relationship might go if a sequel is developed.

Jim Powers’ artistry steps to the fore once again as the movie winds down. Pay close attention to Noah and Allie’s painful talk in the home he built for her. He is on the screen’s far left, sitting in a chair with the one next to him vacant. She is on the far right, seated alone at one end of a settee, a continuous unbroken seat. Despite the chilly emotional atmosphere blanketing the room, an expansive window bathed in sunlight is the mediator reaching out to the former lovers. The implications of this moment summarize longing, separation, and the possibility of reconciliation. Allie once again has the advantage; her love life is unbroken, she has a husband-in-waiting back east. On the other hand, Noah’s is in disrepair, like the now rehabbed house once was. He fixed that, can he fix this?

At film’s end, a masterful shot frames the story’s resolution. Allie’s luggage is tucked away in the far left of the screen and she jumps into Noah’s arms, wraps her legs around his waist, elevating her head above his. The lovers are drenched in a gleaming rain.

The victorious human will is never more clearly illustrated in love’s landscape. Rain and sun, tears and triumph, are superbly displayed as the final curtain descends.

Don’t miss this movie. There is much more to see.

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