Passages 2

The second volume of this four-part Vivid video saga by producer-director Paul Thomas and writer Ariel Hart depicts rites of passage for co-ed roommates Christy Canyon and Jennifer Stewart. It's a sensitive, intentionally old-fashioned movie, as PT is trying to return to a form of Adult movies that preceded the gonzo approach, which 30 years ago was making in-roads in the marketplace, only to take over almost completely nowadays. This 4-pack is largely forgotten today (I'm the first reviewer in IMDb for two of them), though of course the presence of superstar Christy Canyon means plenty of fans still watch them.

Watching these films 32 years later I'm struck by how audiences have changed. The effect of both fans and industry tastemakers (critics, award groups) endlessly stressing the party line that ultimately "hot sex" is all that matters in porn is nearly complete, and of course Christy delivers. But less obvious is the corollary to that attitude: the sex needs to be nasty or at least edgy (think the Max Hardcore revolution that took place not long after "Passages" was released).

In this segment of the story considerable ground is covered in the girls' maturation: Jennifer Stewart gives up her virginity with lover Marc Wallice; Marc and Christy carry on their own love affair, kept secret from Jennifer, and it finally comes to an end after he talks Christy into having a 3-way with his rommate T. T. Boy; all while Christy's "dream lover" Peter North remains active in her imagination, while the instrumental strains of that oh-so-familiar hit song creep in on the soundtrack (minus any Bobby Darin vocal).

The nostalgic aspect of this movie is perhaps its curse, in that one can't help seeing it as almost a lament for simpler times, when a porn movie could entertain without insulting the viewer or being insincere or self-consciously facetious/satirical (another genre, horror films, have fallen prey to the same issue). I prefer to watch it not as a "classic" but rather a demonstration of the merits of storytelling to (however uncommercial it might be) lift a porn project above mere documentary depiction of explicit sex acts.