Portrait of a Call Girl, from Elegant Angel

★★★★½

Time: 2:27, Director: Graham Travis, Date: 2011

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

On the web: Official Site, IAFD, Wikipedia, Porn Valley Vantage, Porn Valley Vantage

Cast: Jessie Andrews (19yo), Eric John (41yo), Manuel Ferrara (36yo), Jay Crew (54yo), Mick Blue (35yo), Ramon Nomar (37yo), Alex Gonz (32yo), Bill Bailey (31yo), Danny Mountain (27yo), Johnny Fender (42yo), and Tommy Pistol (35yo)

Source: 1920×1080 MP4 downloaded from subscription site

Review

Gabrielle (Jessie Andrews), whom her friends call Elle, is a high-priced call girl with a sad past, and she is now in therapy to try to recover. The film tells the story of how she got to where she is. It turns out to be a total story of redemption—though she must pay a steep price for what she did to the one man, Sam (Alec Knight), who truly loved her.

One of the most interesting aspects of the movie concerns Elle's conflicted feelings about her work. We first see her having sex with a businessman whose deepest desire, apparently, is to cum on a woman's face. We then see her masturbating, afterwards, in the back of a limo while remembering her encounter with him. She tells her therapist that she "wanted it to be gross", not to be something she enjoyed. And even as her paid sexual encounters become more and more extreme, she continues to enjoy them. Something about this is empowering to her.

The saddest point in the movie is when she tells her friend that she is a callgirl, and the friend reacts not sympathetically but judgementally. At the end of the movie, though, she tells her whole story to that same friend—and it turns out that Elle herself has been every bit as manipulative as her step-father was. It's an absolutely shocking revelation, one that forces the viewer completely to re-evaluate everything that has gone before. It was so shocking that we had to re-watch the entire movie, and it really did have a very different feeling for us the second time.

And we'll add that we could perfectly well watch this movie a third time. It's beautifully shot and wonderfully acted, and the story is well-told and engaging.

The sex is generally very rough, but we wouldn't necessarily call it "pornish", since it so completely fits the story, and it is clear that Elle enjoys it (which is largely the point). Still, potential viewers should be warned that, in many of the scenes, the men are extremely dominant and that Andrews comes in for some pretty rough treatment. It gets a little too rough in places for our taste and is somewhat disturbing—although, again, it's really meant to be.

The one complaint we have about this movie is that some of the sex scenes are too long. The scene with Manuel Ferrera is passionate and hot, and Andrews cums several times. But it is over 30 minutes long—so long that it feels as if it interrupts the story. We have similar complaints about the scene with Mick Blue and Ramon Nomar, even though that one is not as long (about 20 minutes). We think the movie would have been better had these scenes been edited so that we got just enough of a sense for the sex to move the story forward, as was the case with Wasteland. Perhaps that was something Travis learned from making this movie?

Speaking of Wasteland (which we saw first), there are weird echoes here of that movie. For example, the masks in the final scene here are reminiscent of the masks worn by men in the audience in the final scene of Wasteland. Here, Elle frequently refers to sex to a drug, all but confessing her addiction; in Wasteland, we learn of Jacky's addiction through the course of the movie, though she is blissfully unaware of what her life has become. And "wasteland" is both one of the first and one of the last words spoken in this movie, as part of a monologue that also occurs in Elle's first meeting with her therapist. We're not sure what to make of that, if anything, but it is an intriguing connection.

This film was richly, and rightfully, awarded. It won the 2013 AVN Award for Movie of the Year as well as the 2013 XBiz Award for Feature Movie of the Year; Graham Travis won both of those awards for Best Director; Jessie Andrews won the AVN Award and XBiz Awards for Best Actress; and Alec Knight won the XBiz Award for best non-sex performance.

The movie can be downloaded from the Elegant Angel subscription site, and also from Lust Cinema.

Scene 1: Jessie Andrews and Eric John (♀♂)

U☆N☆R

Time: 6:30

Cumshot: Face

Features: Handjob

Elle has sex with a client who is "new at this" and who wants to cum on her face—which she says will cost him extra.

It's a short, but very realistic scene. We do not see much of him at all as she sucks him, but that fits the story: This not about him.

Scene 2: Jessie Andrews (♀)

U☆N☆R

Time: 2:00

Elle masturbates in the back of a limousine as she remembers her encounter with the businessman.

Scene 3: Jessie Andrews and Manuel Ferrara (♀♂)

★★★★½

Time: 32:00

Female Orgasm: Multiple, Cumshot: Mouth

Features: Analingus, Massage, Penis Masturbation, Rough Sex

He has asked her to do a role play, for $2500, so she goes to his house and dresses up in rubber stockings, long rubber gloves, and heels. She walks down to his kitchen and finds him at his computer, working, and is apparently supposed to try to distract him.

She sits in a chair and starts to masturbate, and he says he can't concentrate, so he gets up and puts a bit in her mouth. She walks through the house, then crawls back to him on all fours, sitting on the floor near him, drooling, and starts masturbating again. He stands up and rolls up his sleeves, then sits down to work again. Unable to get his attention, she gets up and starts breaking things, and he gets up and drags her over to a couch, telling her she is making too much noise. He slaps her ass, then starts licking her pussy from behind, then sits her up roughly and tells her to play with her pussy and make herself cum, which she does. Sex follows.

It's a very long scene. It is also very rough, though that is clearly part of what she has been paid extra to do. Elle seems to enjoy the role she is playing—she has at least a few orgasms—which continues the conflict of which she spoke before. So the sex is pretty hot, and reasonably varied, but whatever this scene contributes to the story, it doesn't need to be nearly as long as it is to do that.

The camera work here is much better than one might expect. There are times that it is more focused on her than on him, but there is a great mix of shots, and we do see a fair bit of him.

Scene 4: Jessie Andrews and Jay Crew (♀♂)

U☆N☆R

Time: 4:00

Cumshot: Mouth

Elle has sex in a hotel room with a regular client after they share lunch.

Scene 5: Jessie Andrews, Mick Blue, and Ramon Nomar (♀♂♂)

★★★★½

Time: 20:00

Female Orgasm: Multiple, Cumshot: Mouth,Face

Features: Double Penetration, Female Ejaculation, Massage, Penis Masturbation, Rough Sex

Elle has sex with a pair of very wealthy clients.

The sex is once again pretty rough. She seems to enjoy herself quite a lot, and she has several orgasms. But it is not clear to us exactly what this scene adds to the story, unlike the third scene. Perhaps the point is to show us just how addicted she has now become to this "drug", but that could have been shown more briefly.

The camera work is not bad, but she is very much the focus.

Scene 6: Jessie Andrews, Alex Gonz, Bill Bailey, Danny Mountain, Johnny Fender, and Tommy Pistol (♀♂)

U☆N☆R

Time: 14:30

Female Orgasm: Yes, Cumshot: Face

Features: Deepthroat, Rough Sex

Elle has sex with six men in an abandoned warehouse.

This is primarily a "blow bang", and the sex is every bit as rough and pornish as one would expect. It does fit the story fairly well, though. All six of the guys cum on her face as she masturbates. She then asks someone to choke her and cums hard on the floor as she continues masturbating.

The men are all wearing masks during this scene, and we rarely see much above their waists. But, again, none of this has anything to do with them, really—until, all of a sudden, and very surprisigly, it does have something to do with one of them.