You get used to a lot of – honestly – crap in this business; it’s axiomatic in the world that ninety percent of everything is crap, and nowhere is that more true than porn – the vast majority, far more than ninety percent, is at best derivative, and any innovation becomes cliche in weeks, if not days. Low-budget looks better than it used to now that everyone has an HD camera, but it’s still low-budget.
Teenage Lesbian is not crap. It’s not low-budget, it’s not half-assed, and the trailer alone has a ring of truth to it that most porn never even reaches for, let alone achieves. It has a cast that includes some of porn’s real actors, but more importantly – and this is going to sound controversial but hear me out – some of porn’s straight actors.
Sometimes lack of diversity helps create a better world – Transsensual in particular does a fantastic job of creating a world in which trans people are unremarkable, in which no one ever gets a trans woman undressed and exhibits surprise or fear or reluctance. It’s like the genitalia just don’t matter.
A lot of lesbian porn, though, only acknowledges that there’s a non-lesbian world in passing – a reference to an absent boyfriend, ex-husband, whatever, and the result can be thin, insubstantial, one-dimensional. The characters in Teenage Lesbian” move in a full world, and they are consequently layered, believable, complex. Their doubt is palpable, their struggles and awkwardness ring true. Their doubt is, in fact, your doubt – will they or won’t they?
Well, they will, but it takes a while and the tension is real. Kristen Scott does a great job of being unsure of herself, and the rest of the players – Casey Calvert, Whitney Wright, Dee Williams, Alina Lopez and Kendra Spade, among others – fill things out icely. Speaking of filled out nicely, and of the way things don’t usually work in porn, there are literally dozens of people in this movie. The party scenes seem like they take place at a real party, and the world – again, unusually – is three-dimensional and real.
In addition to Kristen Scott’s standout turn, there are excellent performances from Tommy Pistol as the understanding, supportive dad, Wolf Hudson as the hardcore friend, and many more – older lesbians who teach lessons, younger girls who are afraid of their sexuality, douchebag straight dudes, mean teens, a panoply of others. “Teenage Lesbian” is just a hair over three hours long, and every minute of that time is extraordinary porn. You should watch it.
