Transformation

Diana DeVoe returns to directing for Girlfriends Films with a most unusual and rewarding DVD concerning gender/sexual fluidity.

First vignette is a tough act to follow, as Nina Hartley gives a unique performance as an "aunt" (actually friend of the mother rather than her sister) who helps forlorn waif Annabelle Lee with a sexual initiation that is actually more beneficial to Nina than the kid.

The way she rationalizes and coaxes Lee through the sex scene is remarkable, something only a true artiste like Hartley could pull off. Also impressive is how Lee, already in her thirties, manages to be utterly convincing as a virginal, vulnerable teen. Vignette deals with forced-masculinization, a topic in Lesbian porn that Girlfriends Films occasionally explores.

Lily Cade does her usual butch/dom routine in the second segment, featuring the delightful Tweety Valentine, who like Lee is an ageless juvenile (here doing her underage thing at actual age 27).

Final two segments are linked by the strong, improvisational performance of Kendra Secrets, playing a manipulative character who is unsympathetic but becomes more interesting the more we get to know her. She seduces cutie Tara Lynn Foxx (same real age as Tweety, and also playing much younger), only to be caught in the act by her butch lover Payton Leigh, who just happens to be Foxx's mom.

How they work out their differences in the final segment, in which Kendra moves from lover to "just friends" status and fixes Payton up with Sarah Shevon as a new bedmate is better seen than believed.

All told, an impressive achievement for the vastly underrated director Diana DeVoe.