scene title: muses: eva maxim
performers: kira noir, eva maxim
site: transfixed ◅ adult time (gamma)
production credits: stella smut (dir.), flex harrington (ed.)
release date: september 28, 2022 | trailer
i have said more than once that i wish porn would take more cues from another short-form, small-budget, critically disdained but obsessively watched, fatally commercially compromised, and frequently los angeles-based form of filmmaking: music videos. i got my wish here, as holly randall's one-time assistant but now assured filmmaker in her own right stella smut opens this edition of transfixed's short-lived muses line of splashy showcases for gamma's stable of trans performers with a five-minute wordless story of longing and union set to one of the most stirring pieces of music ever used in a porn film. (there are no music credits in the video, but shazam identifies it as "moon goddess" by george shaw featuring bei bei, yun he liang, and uyanga bold.)
performers: kira noir, eva maxim
site: transfixed ◅ adult time (gamma)
production credits: stella smut (dir.), flex harrington (ed.)
release date: september 28, 2022 | trailer
 |
| l: eva maxim, r: kira noir |
i have said more than once that i wish porn would take more cues from another short-form, small-budget, critically disdained but obsessively watched, fatally commercially compromised, and frequently los angeles-based form of filmmaking: music videos. i got my wish here, as holly randall's one-time assistant but now assured filmmaker in her own right stella smut opens this edition of transfixed's short-lived muses line of splashy showcases for gamma's stable of trans performers with a five-minute wordless story of longing and union set to one of the most stirring pieces of music ever used in a porn film. (there are no music credits in the video, but shazam identifies it as "moon goddess" by george shaw featuring bei bei, yun he liang, and uyanga bold.)
i was prepared for the sex afterwards to be a letdown from that glorious introduction, but i had neglected to account for kira noir, who has put in seven years of some of the most solid work in porn but has really seemed to reach a new level in energy, gracefulness, and delight since coming out as gay and getting the enhancements she's always wanted. this scene was reportedly among the reasons she won performer of the year at the avn awards in january of 2023, and on the basis of it alone she deserved it; although eva maxim is supposed to be the star at the center of it, smut's camera adores kira just as much if not more.
in fact there were complaints from trans fetishists that the scene was shot too much like romantic boy/girl or even girl/girl, with too much emphasis on the pleasure of the girl being penetrated and not enough on the penetration itself: too few close-ups on genitals (and too much shadow when they were visible) and far too much kissing and eye contact instead. which is all nonsense, from my perspective. i have no use for another detailed anatomy lesson at tedious length; but what i can never get enough of, and is all too rare in any porn genre, is two beautiful women enjoying one another beautifully, in a beautiful setting, with beautiful lighting, framing, composition, and color.
shaun rivera gets another credit for the lighting, and kt wells gets a credit for the production design, and both deserve the acknowledgement: the vaguely mediterranean, pseudo-classical design and costuming helped give the scene a transportative quality, and the light filtering from above, dappling both their bodies in exquisite golden tones, made it hard to pull my eyes away, even as the sex wore on into position after position.
long before i ever watched the scene, i ran across one critic (on imdb, of all places) complaining that there was no story, just a pretty-girl montage and into the sex, with sweetly murmured gonzo conversation between the participants. normally i'm always on the side of wanting more narrative interest in my porn, but i'm shocked that the intro didn't count as a complete enough story. as logocentric as i obviously am, the extralinguistic narrative force of cinema and music still has even more power to sweep me off my feet than mere words ever can.
performances: 27
cinematography: 24
editing: 18
script: 14
sjw points: 9
total score:
cinematography: 24
editing: 18
script: 14
sjw points: 9
total score: