Though the reclusive Mason is an accomplished and assured director of hardcore porn, her "Girl Crush," featuring pairings between women who actually (say they) like other women, manages to be both pretty and dirty.
We can get burned out on porn in general and girl/girl movies in particular because it's never a guarantee that the performers who, while grateful of having a job to do, like the job they're doing.
Mason interviews each performer, including the intriguing Zoe Voss and Celeste Star and the relative newcomers Isobel Wren, Yurizan Beltran, and Haile James and gets for us a good idea of where they are on the "like girls" spectrum.
Voss had a girlfriend once, likes guys, but loves to fool around with women, while Haile James says she "thinks like a guy" and is "all about the clam." Veteran Celeste Star, whose eyes are extra-bewitching in this movie, talks about girls' "dainty backs."
Why should we care, really, if the performers are having fun? This is secondary in most straight porn, isn't it? But in a girl/girl video, when nothing substantial is going in and nothing noticeable is flying out, it's really important to us as an audience that the performers are feeling it.
Why "Girl Crush" is such a worthwhile movie is because Mason shoots it well, the women are into what they're doing and look great doing it and, as an extra special bonus, no one says "empowering" once.
· Elegant Angel (elegantangel.com)
· Buy "Girl Crush" (gamelink.com)