scene title: twisted passions 30, scene 4
performers: liv revamped, ember snow
site: girlfriends films
production credits: b. skow (dir.)
release date: january 13, 2022 | trailer
it's getting to be time for my annual attempt to write down some of the girl/girl porn that stood out to me over the course of the year. the original purpose of this blog, when i started it, was to try to catalog everything i liked as it came out; but my media consumption habits have never been orderly enough for that; so while i've been dutifully downloading, sorting, and screencapping new scenes released by my subscription sites, i've watched very few of them all the way through, as the attention i've paid to x-rated material this year has wandered primarily into historical reference.
performances: 28
cinematography: 20
editing: 17
script: 12
sjw points: 7
total score:
performers: liv revamped, ember snow
site: girlfriends films
production credits: b. skow (dir.)
release date: january 13, 2022 | trailer
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| l: liv revamped, r: ember snow |
but weigh ho, i've decided on a bi-monthly slate of scenes to cover, scenes that stood out to me among the profusion of content, and i'll be watching each one and passing judgment in my usual inimitable (not that anyone is likely to try) style. starting here.
this is the first time i've deigned to notice a girlfriends films scene since april 2019, when i put them near the bottom of the all-girl porn sites i had paid attention to for that month. a few things have changed since then. it looks like dan o'connell, girlfriends' longtime director whose drab shooting style, ugly interiors, and awkward one-take performances defined the brand for over a decade, has finally retired, or been retired, for good. b. skow, of decent lighting, color correction, and very occasionally shot composition fame, is the studio's primary director, in addition to the contract stars who are helming their own shoots now. (over the course of 2022, that baton passed from serene siren to lacy lennon.) it also seems like the overwhelming release schedule of past years has also slackened a bit; and while a decrease in quantity does not always mean a corresponding increase in quality, it seems to have done a bit of good here.
but of course any porn studio can only be as good as the talent they hire. i ignore the vast bulk of girlfriends' output, like with many other sites', because its prepondernace of whiteness and thinness bores me, and the talent pool of the entire industry is in an awkward stage at the moment, as a rush of new faces have come in to replace the name stars who are migrating away from studio work, but the new recruits are (with few exceptions) not yet on the level of the names as performers. so a rare pairing like this one, with afrolatina liv and filipina ember, both seasoned performers with a rare intensity of connection, is worth savoring.
the twisted passions series isn't girlfriends' longest running one, but it might be its most adequate: the devolution of the brand since the early 2000s has meant that rather than being the series with unsettling storylines, it's now the series with any emotional complexity at all. here, liv is angry at long-term girlfriend ember for hanging out poolside with some enhanced blonde (to which prologue the budget did not run), which ember says was only to make liv jealous because she's been feeling sexually neglected. a few more recriminations, explanations, and professions of devotion later, they are kissing and apologizing tearfully. and to to sex, you would suppose, but liv stays in character, chiding ember for moving too quickly, so they keep the temperature at a simmer by kissing a while longer before the clothes eventually come off in mutual passion.
i've had a soft spot for liv revamped for years now: one of the most candid and hard-working performers around, she's very rarely given the opportunity to showcase her talent at girl/girl (because girl/girl fans overwhelmingly prefer 'em youthful, blonde and willowy), and she's very good at it. her connection with ember here is not just believable, it's explosive: girlfriends' frequently-reiterated promise of authentic passion has let me down often enough that the real thing is all the sweeter for its rarity. the sex itself almost wholly manages to live up to the tender, slow-burn intro; even the porn cliché of tribbing is endowed with truthiness by ember's energetic technique.
but the primary reason i chose this scene even before i fell in love with the connection between liv and ember was that a studio pairing two brown girls is so rare in the modern industry as to be noteworthy in itself. ember and liv being master craftswomen at their profession made it far more than merely worth watching, but i'd click on something with much less committed performers just for the pleasure of seeing the global majority represented on screen.
performances: 28
cinematography: 20
editing: 17
script: 12
sjw points: 7
total score: