Available ($27.95) from
Comstock films
and from
Amazon
Reviewed by Gary Meyer and Shanna Germain
(03/18/09)
Gary:
Let's start with the title, which conjures up for me a couple of octogenarians in porch rockers holding hands. Have no fear! It's actually a coded warning that we shouldn't expect anorexic jail bait paired with gym-crafted muscles. Instead we're looking at two attractive bodies that have been lived in, not worn out, bodies that may very well resemble yours or mine, which makes the experience of watching them make love all the more immediate and involving.
"Make love" isn't a euphemism here -- it's simply the most accurate description. If a race of sex-prioritizing aliens (led by Keanu Reeves) were determined to destroy humanity because all they'd monitored was abusive porn and stereotypical Hollywood quickies on painfully hard surfaces, there'd be no need to plead with them: "But wait, human sex can be joyful and playful and generous and loving and sharing..." All you'd need to do would be show them Bill and Desiree.
"Playful" points up one of the most revolutionary aspects of their sex: the laughter. Mass media portrayals of sex seem so deadly serious, so fraught with tragic consequences, so illicit. There's so much casual sex, stranger sex, hookup sex, adulterous sex. This is something different: call it familiar sex. Comfortable sex that's still so good it can make its participants laugh in delight, in wonder, in recognition that sex can be magical and sweet and silly all at the same time. Another revolutionary aspect: sex doesn't have to be wild, freaky, and kinkily accessorized to be deeply pleasurable. Missionary-position, vanilla coupling can still be mind-blowing fun. And sex needn't be goal-oriented and orgasm-fixated. It can have multiple uses and outcomes, from sharing rapport to being "spiritual and redemptive" as Desiree notes.
One quibble: the perpetual motion camerawork during the sex scenes can be a tad dizzying. And one overall concern of the "too good" variety. Are these two too perfect and/or too Left Coast to be universally appealing? I mean you've got perhaps the ultimate sensitive New Age guy here, this handsome devil with a full white beard and mane who recites his own well-crafted love poetry and who's happy to caress his partner while she diddles herself with a sex toy. And this multi-orgasmic, long-haired earth goddess who'll happily service him without feeling exploited. Having met at what Bill vehemently denies is a California sex cult, their story is replete with necking in the Harbin hot tubs and al fresco coupling amongst the redwoods interrupted by a spotted owl researcher. Will this play in Noo Yawk? Will ordinary human beings feel intimidated by all this harmonious bliss?
Shanna:
In so many ways, I agree with Gary's assessment, from the making love to the gleeful delight to the laughter that ensues. And, to be truthful, the reaction I have from watching this video isn't so much: "Let's fuck right now," but: "Let's fuck always, until I'm 90, and do it with that much great joy and desire." Which isn't to say that this video isn't arousing, because it is. But it arouses something deeper in me than a typical porno. It arouses my desire to be sexual for all of my life, to appreciate and care for my body, to give of myself truly and freely, to not buy into the idea that sex and arousal are only for the young and perfect. Perhaps it's that I'm exactly half of Bill's age, but I felt a great joy at knowing that I have (at least) another 35 years of this type of pleasure to look forward to.
I feel intimidated, surely, by this, but then again, not really. Of course, I'm a transplanted New Yorker who now lives among the spotted owls, so I'm probably not a really great judge of that. Will it arouse someone who's used to Internet porn and cartoon perfection and yells of "Harder! Faster!"? I don't know. At least not right away. But it could do something greater -- it could offer something that's much rarer than instant arousal. Education, for starters. A glimpse that sexuality really is so incredibly complex and so filled with humor and desire and joy. A reminder that sex is the time and place when we can let down our guards and be truly and uniquely human. I keep coming back to the story of the spotted owl researcher who comes upon them just after they've made love among the trees, and his question: "Are there more like you in the woods?"
Hopefully, after watching movies like this, the answer will be "Yes. Lots more."
