XConfessions 1, from Erika Lust

★★★★½

Time: 1:49, Director: Erika Lust, Date: 2013

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

On the web: Erika Lust's Website

Cast: Carol Vega (20yo), Christian Frei, Amber Nevada (23yo), Spansul Nawa, Miriam Prado, Jorge Prado, Carolina Abril (21yo), Coco de Mal (21yo), Amarna Miller (23yo), Mario D, Xavi, Martin Mazza, Juan Lucho (25yo), Samia Duarte (26yo), Lulú Pretel, Bel Gris, José Casto, Sicilia (27yo), Sean, Selina Ak, Alex Roca, Bianca Resa (32yo), Frans Cuyàs, and Victor A

Source: Individual scenes downloaded as 1920×1080 MP4s from Lust Cinema

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀-, Balance ♀

Review

Feminist porn legend Erika Lust created the XConfessions series in 2013. The idea was to solicit stories and fantasies from her fans, and then to choose two each month to make into a short film. It's an extremely sexy idea, leading, as the XConfessions website say, to "real films with real sex", something utterly different from "stereotypical cheap-porn imagery".

This DVD features the first ten of these short films. As you might imagine, then, there is great variation both in content and in quality.

As often with Erika Lust's movies, many of these scenes are as interesting intellectually as they are stimulating sexually, and there is often intense emotional content, as well. Lust does a wonderful job bringing the power of certain sorts of fantasies to the screen: bondage, in the second scene, for example, and pegging in the sixth. Our two favorites, though, are the last two. The ninth scene is hauntingly beautiful and horribly sad, so much so that it is almost not erotic. And the last scene is just stunning.

Note that we didn't bother to make specific remarks about the camera work in each scene. As always with Erika Lust's movies, it is excellent. She is without doubt one of the finest filmmakers working in porn today.

The XConfessions series won the 2014 Feminist Porn Award for Hottest Straight Vignette.

Scene 1: I Fucking Love IKEA (Carol Vega and Christian Frei, ♀♂)

★★★★☆

Time: 15:22

Cumshot: Ass

Features: 69, Analingus

Pleasure ✓, Passion ✓, Balance ♀

The blurb: "I'm a bitch, and I know it. I have a thing for IKEA (I know, it's weird) but making him buy and build stuff for me turns me on. I know he hates it, too. I relax and enjoy a drink while he sweats, never lifting a hand to help. And that's not all, I also like to tease him, but there's no reward until the job is done."

She has gotten a bunch of stuff from IKEA, which he has to put together while she sits and sips a drink—and watches him, since she apparently finds doing so sexy. The IKEA catalog she is reading suddenly morphs into porn, and she starts fantasizing about her lover.

It's a hot fantasy, and it's nice how palpable her lust is. There is nice chemistry between them, too, but somehow the sex never feels that passionate, and the changes of position do not always feel natural. They do both seem to enjoy themselves, but she never seems terribly aroused, and never seems near orgasm. That seems odd, since this is clearly supposed to be her fantasy.

Scene 2: Hold Me So Tight It Hurts (Amber Nevada and Spansul Nawa, ♀♂ + ♀)

★★★★½

Time: 6:35

Female Orgasm: Yes

Features: Bondage

Pleasure ♀, Balance ♀

The blurb: "I can't get over my bondage fetish, it is the only thing that really turns me on. A lot of people don't understand it, especially boyfriends. It's not about being dominated, or restrained, or uncomfortable or vulnerable. To me, the ties feel like an embrace. I experience more passion from the sensations of the cords gripping my flesh than most people do touching body-to-body. Even when I masturbate, I like to be tied or have to imagine that I am."

She is standing, naked and stroking her body, and her lover appers and starts to bind her elaborately with red rope. He leaves one hand free, and she then sits on the floor and masturbates, cumming at about 5:00. And then suddenly the cords disappear, though the marks remain.

It's a beautifully shot scene that again melds elements of reality and fantasy. Our interpretation, such as it is, is that this is really her fantasy of being bound.

Scene 3: I ama veryy badx secvretary (Miriam Prado and Jorge Prado, ♀♂)

★★★★½

Time: 12:34

Cumshot: Stomach

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

The blurb: "In this confession, real couple Miriam and Jorge play a delicious sex game where she is his secretary for the night and suffers erotic punishment for every typing mistake she makes: 'Tom is tearig opehn a condom wrapp. Noiw his cock is up agianst mypussy. The hwead s pressingg against my cuynt. a i can feel hiom working hijmself into me. Tom is annoy;ed at al the spoelling mistajkes i am making. I ama veryy badx secvretary.'"

She is typing at a desk, and he comes up behind her and tries to distract her by kissing her neck, lowering her top, and stroking and sucking her tits. He spreads her legs and strokes her pussy as she tries to keep typing, then pushes her panties aside and fingers her. She tries to keep typing, but starts to make mistakes, which he has apparently warned her not to do....

This is a really sexy scene. It really is "a delicious sex game", and it's amazing how seeing what she is typing gives you a window into what she is thinking. Other than his teasing her, however, there is no "erotic punishment", so far as we can see, and they don't use a condom. So the blurb doesn't fit the scene. But who cares? It's hot, and they really seem to enjoy themselves.

Scene 4: My First Time Eating Oysters...and Pussy (Carolina Abril and Coco de Mal, ♀♀)

★★★★☆

Time: 11:54

Female Orgasm: Yes

Features: 69, Female Ejaculation

Passion ✓, Balance ♀

The blurb: "In this installation, a woman recounts her sensual first encounter eating rich aphrodisiacs and making love with another woman: 'I thought she was everything attractive in a person—smart, funny, a bit evil, and a showoff with great boobs. Best of all, she was a lesbian. She called me the next weekend and invited me over for dinner at her house. Well...we never got past the hors d'oeuvres. We stopped filling our mouths with rich food, and paid attention to our bodies instead. Sucking, licking, stroking and devouring each other right there on the patio in the breezy summer afternoon.'"

Two women make soft, sensual love on the floor. The scene features one of them rubbing an ice cube on the other; squeezing a lemon onto her body; and, as promised, oysters and cunnilingus. The scene finishes with them sitting next to each other and reaching over to masturbate each other. One of them cums, and then the other masturbates herself until she squirts three or four times.

It is beautifully shot, and a pleasure to watch. But we found the sex to be a bit too soft and slow, and lacking in passion, though it does get better in that respect toward the end, and they obviously enjoy themselves.

Scene 5: Sit Down, Shut Up, and Watch (Amarna Miller, Mario D, and Xavi, ♀♂)

★★★★½

Time: 8:08

Female Orgasm: Yes

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

The blurb: "I want to watch someone fuck my wife. I want to sit at the end of the bed in silence as she takes his dick in her mouth. I want to be quiet and detached. I will not say a word, I won't even touch myself. I will watch my wife do things I have never seen her do before and make noises I have never heard and see a look in her eye that I have never seen before, but I will not say a word. This would be such an incredible turn on..."

He sits on the bed, and his wife emerges and blindfolds him with his tie, then whipsers in his ear and leads him to another room, where she sits him down, unblindfolds him, and reveals another guy on the couch, with whom she proceeds to have sex while her husband watches.

It's a hot fantasy, and the sex is passionate. It's engaging on an intellectual level, as well as sexy. The scene is shot in such a way as to leave it very unclear what is fantasy here and what is reality, and different people may have different ideas about this.

Scene 6: I Pegged My Boyfriend (Martin Mazza and Coco de Mal, ♀♂)

★★★★½

Time: 14:39

Cumshot: On Himself

Features: Analingus, Ass to Mouth, Penis Masturbation, Strap On

Passion ♀, Balance ♀

The blurb: "When anonymous XConfessions user Moni met her boyfriend at work, little did she know he would be the perfect sexual match for her: 'Our first few nights together were spent exploring each others bodies. But on the third night, we couldn't resist trying the newly purchased strap-on. I felt nothing but raw desire as I moved hips and slid into him. I think there is no greater joy than to see your partner enjoying himself so wildly. Soon, he begged to go faster and harder; our needs joined to make the best fucking there is.'"

It's a sexy premise, and overall the scene is terrific. But we did think that the initial sequence, where he sucks her cock, went on too long, without enough variation. And we would have appreciated a little verbal communication between them—though it probably would have been in Spanish, which wouldn't have helped us very much.

Scene 7: Sadistic Trainer (Juan Lucho, Samia Duarte, Lulú Pretel, Bel Gris, José Casto, Sicilia, Sean, Carol Vega, Selina Ak, Alex Roca, Bianca Resa, and Frans Cuyàs, ♀♀♂♂+)

★★★☆☆

Time: 13:06

Female Orgasm: Yes

The blurb: "My friend takes me to these new crossfit classes at the gym. Pro: everyone in the class is totally hot. Con: it's so fucking hard and the trainer is an asshole! I want to get in shape, and it is a good workout. So when it gets too hard and I feel that I can't do any more, I fantasize about tying the trainer up, stripping down with my other class-mates and fucking in front of him. The workout is finished and I have a smile on my face thinking about torturing the sadistic trainer!"

The "sadistic trainer" is working his class to death, so they tie him up with various bits of exercise equipment and have group sex in front of him.

We thought the initial sequence, which features the group exercising, getting tired, etc, when on a bit too long, and we didn't find the sex that sexy. It's just not very passionate, and it is hard to connect with any of the characters when there are so many of them. Maybe this sort of group sex is just not our thing....

Scene 8: A Blowjob Is Always a Great Last Minute Gift Idea (Victor A, ♂)

U☆N☆R

Time: 3:20

The blurb: "Inspired by an original confession, Lust presents a vision of taboo sensuality thanks to the talented Víctor, and the delicious artisan Candy Cock by Papabubble—which does indeed make a great last-minute gift!"

A bit of a lark, this scene features a guy sitting on a bench in a park, reading Mishima's Decay of the Angel (in Spanish, of course) and blowing a candy cock on a stick.

Scene 9: Obsessed (Sicilia and Sean, ♀♂)

★★★★½

Time: 9:30

Cumshot: Stomach

Features: Footjob

Balance ♀

The blurb: "A haunting and beautiful vignette, this piece was inspired by the confession of a man who would give anything to have his lover back again: 'She is gone, but I still want her. I want every inch of her beautiful body. Her white velvet skin, the taste of her tongue, the smell of her hair, the way she fit into my arms, the ecstasy she gave me. Three years later and I'm not over her, or the sex that we had. All I have are her home videos, which I watch more and more these days. I miss you Anna.'"

In the vignette itself, he makes love to her again, while her videos play on the walls of the room. It is indeed beautiful how it is shot, but there is a sadness to the sex that, though fitting, is not particularly erotic. But perhaps this scene is not really meant to be erotic. It is a great scene, anyway.

Scene 10: Let's Make a Porno (Selina Ak and Alex Roca, ♀♂)

★★★★★

Time: 13:28

Female Orgasm: Yes

Features: 96

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

The blurb: "I confess that I'd love to perform sex for the camera. But not just my boyfriend's little mobile camera, I want the real deal...a porn movie. I want to feel the heat of the lights, the crew watching and getting excited, I imagine the audience masturbating with my scene... And then I want to end up on Pornhub for millions to enjoy."

A couple have sex in front of the camera. The first three minutes show us the preparation for the shoot. The rest is the film as edited, interspersed with shots of the shoot itself. It's an odd mix—the eroticism of their lovemaking and the very unerotic mechanics of the shoot.

In many ways it is more interesting, intellectually, than it is stimulating, which is not to say it isn't arousing. But it is much more than that. It is stunning.

The dialog here is all in Spanish, which we do not understand, but the feeling of the scene seemed to be what mattered most. We did not think we missed much, not being able to understand the directions being given to the performers. It was clear enough what kind of thing was being said.