Taboo 21

I'm a big fan of Red Ezra, a pornographer whose work deserves to be better known beyond fanatical porn followers. You gotta love a guy who signs his screenplays as "Joe Ezrahaus" (a tribute to Cleveland's Joe Eszterhaus, at one time Hollywood's hottest screenwriter).

I see that the few hardy souls voting on IMDb about TABOO 21 have disliked it, but I beg to differ. The original incest dramas by Kirdy Stevens were terrific movies I was fortunate enough to attend at Times Sq. theaters back in the '80s, but the tired franchise was in need of some oomph when Ezra re-imagined the genre.

Taking the word "taboo" literally, he has largely switched from incest to a different taboo here, interracial sex. By setting the film in the past in America's South, he gets good mileage out of the black buck humping white girls -now one of the more popular XXX sub-genres in an era where Lexington Steele, Mandingo and Jack Napier are brand-names.

Simple structure has Stephen St. Croix playing an evil sheriff, corrupt as they come, who's seen with his henchmen killing the black hero Tyler Knight's daddy in cold blood at the outset. Casting is interesting, since St. Croix is playing a cracker but he bears a Vin Diesel mixed-race appearance, which has stood him in good stead over a 20-year career likely to join the 1,000 roles club soon.

Knight is tempted by young and sultry Lauren Phoenix, who happens to be St. Croix's daughter. Czech actress Sharon Wild (with a faint accent) is Lauren's step-mom, just as beautiful and exuding a MILF quality, even though the actresses are exactly the same age.

Story centers on the love affair between Knight and Phoenix, which begins as raw lust but becomes something more moving. While tossing in several sentimental scenes, particularly the finish, Ezra is careful to satisfy the audience's horn-dog mentality as well, notably in a torrid threesome in which step-mom and daughter share Knight's massive member with plenty of licking all-round.

Extras like vintage cars and costumes, attractive sets, and always careful detailing (there are NO dirty feet on screen in this movie!) shows Ezra's seriousness about his craft. It's not a huge budget, but gives the overall effect of a real movie with real acting and interesting situations. One example of this is English subtitles applied as a beautiful support character, earthy Peruvian beauty Jennifer Luv, speaks only in Spanish as a bar-girl abused by mustache-twirling heavy St. Croix.

Lauren Phoenix is top-billed and steals the show -she is not only ethereally beautiful but demonstrates effortless deep throat technique with aplomb. It's amazing that she cranked out over 80 videos per year during her salad days of 2003 thru 2005. Sharon Wild is a more exotic blonde, but together they make a terrific tag team. Knight's acting was surprisingly good, as all he really needed to do for the fans was to get hard and often.

I recently watched a brand-new Canadian porn video starring Sean Michaels and Rayveness titled FAMILY SECRETS which is all about incest and similar in many ways to TABOO 21, set in the ante bellum South. It makes for an interesting comparison of styles: Ezra vs. that of distinctive filmmaker Nica Noelle.