January 1, 2001

Daring Media

Daring Media Group is a British producer and distributor whose first films were released in 2007. They are known for an artistic, or cinematic, sort of porn with high production values.

Daring's movies do not, generally speaking, have a feminist orientation, but several female directors have worked for them: Anjali Kara, Dawn, Lisa Loves, and Diane Summers.

Lisa Loves has directed quite a few films for Daring. Like the work of Daring's best-known director, Kendo, she makes an artistic sort of porn featuring close photography, stylish sets, and dramatic lighting. The costumes can sometimes be a bit predictable, and the makeup often seems a bit heavy-handed. But the best of Love's work is not just erotic but truly beautiful, though on other occasions it can become so slow and "romantic" as to be boring.

Dawn has made five films for Daring itself, including intriguing colelctions of vignettes and some features: Angel Eyes, a sort of Western shot on location in Arizona, and a parody of Grand Theft Auto. More recently, however, she has made a series of films for the "Daring Pure" brand, which is Daring's venture into the "romantic porn" market. As of this writing, we have seen a couple of these: After Midnight and Bedtime Stories, neither of which struck us as really successful. There were good scenes in each of them, but, for the most part, they felt too pre-planned and were not as good as what one can get from Dane Jones or Erotica X.

We have also looked at some of the work of Kendo which, as we said, has an extremely artistic feel. Some of it can be very, very good, though it often falls victim to porn clichés and sometimes shows very little concern for the female performers' pleasure.


Heterosexual

★★★½☆
After Midnight (Dawn)
★★★☆☆
Bedtime Stories (Dawn)
★★★½☆
Excite (Lisa Loves)
★★★½☆
J'Adore (Lisa Loves)
★★★½☆
Past Times (Kendo)
★★★★☆
Tenderness (Lisa Loves)
★★★★☆
Warm Embrace (Lisa Loves)