Girls Kissing Girls 5

Sweetheart Video's most successful series is largely anthology style, and as a result the ratio of hits to misses is important. For Volume 5, Nica Noelle is batting 1.000, with at least one classic segment.

Lead-off vignette is dominated literally by superstar Veronica Avluv, a solid performer who simply doesn't get enough credit compared to her peers Kendra, Lisa Ann and Julia Ann. Nica keeps relationships ambiguous, as usual, with young Kasey Chase despondent because the duo is about to move away, due to Avluv's getting a new job. Shot in 2010, the script briefly but effectively dwells upon the recession of that time - a stark reality. Smooching from Veronica finally cheers the kid up, and this segment certainly strikes a balance between hardcore Sapphic sex and good, old-fashioned osculation.

A big-name lesbian filmmaker in her own right, Madison Young heads up a significant second segment, highlight of the show for me. She's a student interviewing a big-name XXX film star played by Nikki Brooks (she really looks the part, but casting is ironic in that Nikki never made it, only doing lesbian and fetish videos, generally low-grade, in a short career).

Nica uses this to present a very well-written dialectic that examines the still-topical feminist issue in the porn world. It's a topic covered in scores of Jacky St. James videos, as Young plays devil's advocate accusing superstar Nikki of promoting that old sexism/male chauvinism by making hay with porn videos featuring choking, bondage and subservience. Nikki responds with the familiar "freedom" message - women should be free to do what they want, and if they want to be abused (according to someone else's definition) and submissive, that's being free, baby.

I don't buy this notion at all, which is the underpinning of BDSM and the current "50 Shades" craze, but Nica turns the issue on its head by having Nikki get fed up with the yammering and laying a little domination lite on bespectacled Young. Of course (as in any Jacky SJ video or her current Showtime TV series "Submission") the youngster loves it. The fact that Young is in real-life the dom and proselytizer for lesbian BDSM adds panache to this classic showdown.

Noelle completely changes the mood to utter romance next with the ultimately beautiful Samantha Ryan humping the underrated but extremely sensual bombshell Dia Zerva. Drawback to this segment is Dia doing a Teri Weigel exaggerated shouting fit to represent orgasms, at odds with Nica's prime directive of "Real Sex, Real Orgasms" for the label.

Finale brings Nica's favorite crew member Cry Baby (John Wilkes) out front briefly for one of his cameos as a cheesecake photographer taking shots of the topless duo: Sarah Blake and Lexi Belle. Afterward, the girls come to grips with an old grudge: Sarah went off to become a top model 2 years back, leaving Lexi feeling deserted as she thought they were more than gal pals. When Sarah remarks that she requested Lexi especially for this plum modeling gig, it's time to let bygones be bygones and the duo hump passionately. Needless to say, lots of smooching is included.

I was intrigued by the unusual look of full-figured Blake, paired opposite superstar Lexi, and was quite surprised to find she has hundreds of credits in a lengthy career yet manages to fly under the radar. She was 29 when this video was shot but looks like a kid.