So we’ve already established that rough sex, when directed and shot by genius pornographer Tristan Taormino, is hot as fuck. What could possibly make it hotter? Let’s see… how about casting hot, strong women and having them call the shots? How about interviewing the performers prior to the scene to discuss roughness and trust? Yeah, I think that’ll do the trick. The premise behind Rough Sex is enough to make anyone wet. Rough Sex seeks to fulfill the fantasies of its female performers, and not in a lame cop-out way. Each scene comes straight from its female performer’s brain, and the male counterparts have been chosen by the women as well. Adrianna Nicole wants to be taken advantage of by . . . read more

In trying to articulate what makes much of Tristan Taormino’s porn so great, I’ve decided on this: she pushes her performers to express their actual personalities. Have I preached to you about her Chemistry series yet? It’s the epitome of personality-driven porn, and it’s so much hotter for it. In general, porn tends to flatten people; and while I’m all for completely mindless and raw fucking on film, I also really, really enjoy seeing genuine people get it on. Penny Flame’s Expert Guide to Rough Sex brings that to the table, with the added hotness of choking, slapping, femdom, and many more delicious rough activities. First, an admission: I am terrifyingly vanilla in my personal sex life, and my boyfriend . . . read more

Tristan Taormino’s Expert Guide to Threesomes begins with a lesson from Tristan, about nine minutes long. As you might imagine, nine minutes isn’t much time to go beyond the basics. Tristan explains the reasons people engage in threesomes, the types of threesomes (the triangle threesome in which everyone is sexual with everyone, and the “V” threesome in which two people have sex with a third person, but not each other), and the opportunities that threesomes present (e.g., for you to have sex with a person of a gender different than your partner’s). Tristan lists and explains eight main tips, beginning with “Get on the same page” and finishing with “Talk about it afterward.” Unfortunately, there is not much in the . . . read more

Genre: Edited-down threesomes Director: Varies by scene Length: 3 hours and 43 minutes on each disc, 7 hours and 26 minutes altogether Cast: See below. Ctrl + F might be useful, here. Overview: I thought they were kidding about the 69 scenes thing. They weren’t. Each scene is an extremely abbreviated version of a scene from some other Vivid production. On average, the scenes last 6.4 minutes each. As you might imagine, foreplay is minimal and pop shots are religiously included. Special Features: Previews and a commercial for Vivid products. The inside of the case mentions “Bonus Scenes,” but I can’t find any. Thankfully. Audio/Video Quality: Obviously, video quality varies greatly, from very ’90s-looking scenes to well-lit, modern-looking scenes. Both 4:3 . . . read more

Um, can Tristan Taormino make one of these per year until I die? I dare say she’s found the gold mine with the Chemistry series. Each one of them has been exciting, interesting, and hot. The premise of the series is reminiscent of reality shows, such as Real World or Big Brother; only these are carefully hand-picked porn stars whose only instruction from Taormino is to have sex whenever they feel like it. They also do “confessionals” for the camera. Initially, in terms of physicality, I was a bit wary of the stars in Chemistry Vol. 3; I wasn’t at all attracted to Christian or Steven St. Croix, and Roxy DeVille struck me as a dumb wannabe rockstar. That couldn’t . . . read more