Reader Questions
Do You Ever Look Back
I got an email recently from a guy I’ll call Reader X since he didn’t let me know if it was ok to use his name. His questions were really good so I decided to take a little time and come up with answers that I could post. Here is the first. I’ve got two more coming. I hope you enjoy them. Any comments or questions, fire them off to rog@rogreviews.com
Reader X Writes:
1. Do you ever go back and look over what you wrote about a certain actress, director, film series or studio? I am curious about this because it seems that as a porno reviewer you must be buried in a never ending avalanche of today’s porn, without the chance to reflect on what came before. But as a reviewer you must sometimes want to go back, look at and rethink some of what came before. Like the guys at Rolling Stone who once in a while get a chance to write a retrospective of an artist that they have written reviews and news articles about for several years.
The simple answer is yes, but not as often as I would like to. I usually try to make the opening and/or closing paragraphs of my reviews about the people who made the movie or the people in them. In doing so I sometimes go back so I can remember some of the things they have done in the past. I’m lucky enough to have a few miles on me so I can remember a lot of the porn that came before. I remember the birth of gonzo and what a breakthrough that was. I remember a time when putting “all models who appear on this box are in this movie” was a VERY important distinction. I remember what Alex DeRenzy was doing years ago. I remember John Leslie making great features and I remember Max Hardcore shooting vignettes for LBO.
The DVD revolution gave me a chance to go back somewhat. Several older titles came out on DVD and I got a chance to watch them again. Even now some titles are just making it to the format. (I’m still waiting for Stagliano’s classic Mystic Pieces and hope he remembers suggesting that I do the DVD commentary on that one.) I don’t expect to see a lot of truly “classic” titles making their way to Blu-Ray or HD any time soon. I just don’t think the originals look good enough to really warrant the investment. So as much as I want a copy of Candi Evans and Bunny Bleu’s Cheerleader Academy on HD, I don’t think I’ll get to revisit that one any time soon.
I would love to write more retrospectives on performers, directors, movies and trends. It is one of the things I would like to work on in the future. I try to do that a little bit when I get a chance to interview someone who has a long history in the business. (John Stagliano for example.) I get a chance to shape the interviews with questions that I hope people will find interesting. I do want to lend a sense of history to the work I do. I’ve been watching porn for over two decades and reflecting back is something I would love to do more of.
I also go back sometimes and read what I said about a performer. Sometimes I change greatly in terms of how I feel about a performer over time. Asia Carrera comes to mind. Early in her career I found her beautiful but a little flat and I believe I called her “boring.” Over time I really liked her and felt her performances began to match her looks and I became a big fan. Then there are times when I will look at a performer now and think “what was I thinking.”
So back to the original question, yes I love looking back, but don’t get to do it as often as I would like.
