The Strangers

This lovely feature from Britain's JoyBear Pictures is evidence of the label's stick-to-itiveness: for two decades cranking out a small but steady selection of Couples Romances, not giving in to the commercial predominance of gonzo content. "The Strangers" can honestly and positively be described as a female-friendly porn movie.

Set at Hampton Hall, a rural British manor house, it emphasizes the lovely countryside and an easy-going style of living that is refreshing. There is no sense of porn's glorification (inverted) of women as sluts, but instead a hedonistic celebration of sex and sensual pleasure. Fans of "wham bam" pornography are not targeted.

Adhering to the JoyBear format, dialog is suppressed in favor of voice-over narration, as newcomer Ellie Eastleigh's character tells us about the arrival of a couple of strangers (Esluna Love and Curved Marvin), who she invites to stay at the manor, and who open up her and her sisters (Yiming Curiosity and Belle O'Hara) to the wonders of what used to be called "free love" back when hippies were in flower.

The five individual sex vignettes, with titles ranging from "Room with a View" (introducing the movie's emphasized theme of voyeurism) to "Puss on Boots", a clever title describing Yiming and Esluna's lesbian sex scene which is built around boot-fetishism -Eluna naked except for her boots is the movie's overall central image). An overall cheerfulness underlies the show's hedonistic message.

Some interesting casting choices here (only veteran Marcus London is a recognizable porn star in the show) include very similar looking Esluna and Eastleigh, who have a threesome scene with Curved Marvin. Marvin's amusing stage name stems from him having a long, curved cock, reminiscent but shorter than that of iconic (if somewhat forgotten) porn performer Tony (The Hook) Perez of Roberta Findlay's classic "Nobody But My Husband". Esluna is an unusual discovery, who pulls off the current tons of tattoos look well, and oddly resembles a strange combined look of both porn starlet Maya Woulfe and mainstream one-hit wonder (so far) "Licorice Pizza" lead Alana Haim.