Trouble x 2

Studio: Slave Labor Productions
Director: Paige White
Cast: Lorelei Lee, Bella, Paige White, Hunter Rhodes

I used to watch a lot of BDSM videos as part of my job and, once I didn’t have to review them, I stopped. My problem with them was less production value (fetish videos tend to have an air of San Francisco about them, and one expects a homeless guy to show up and pass out at any minute, which is great the first few times, and certainly a welcome departure, but a worn-out novelty very quickly) than attitude; people seemed to be playing at being dommes and subs rather than just taking care of business.

Porn is about theatre, of course, but I don’t like it when the theatricality overwhelms the action without bothering at least to compensate with production values and a real sense of purpose.

Trouble x 2 is very simple, and this was a relief. Lorelei Lee and Bella are in a heap of trouble. The movie starts with them naked (and no high heels) against a brick wall in a warehouse. Paige White, a petite and no-nonsense domme with an accent out of the Great Plains, leads each by a nipple to adjoining tables. Trouble x 2 is about these two women being put through the paces by a pair of cool and collected pros (White is joined by her partner, Hunter Rhodes, later in the session).

About the women: Lee and Bella speak very little. They really are expected to be objects, but there is nothing that makes the viewer feel what is happening is non-consensual. Further, White is not cruel. She isn’t delighting in the action for the sake of the camera. Instead, the ritual is reduced to its essence without any fanfare. Each woman is collared, gagged, tied, clamped, and repeatedly tweaked (also snapped with rubber bands). There is no commentary other than that of White and Rhodes and the inevitable yelping of the subjects.

Each mark shows up on the pale skin of Lee and Bella in frank detail. Lee spends the first part of the movie with her left leg bent back; she and Bella are roped and trussed together, sometimes by their pinky toes. They are stood up, knelt down, spanked, flogged, braided, and sharply counseled not to laugh – because sometimes we laugh – and they look great.

This movie plays like a taciturn chef’s cooking show with very hot ingredients. It is by the numbers and empirical. As one can only make an omelette after breaking eggs (unless it’s a vegan banana omelette), it is understood that only by tying the women can you then hope to snap them with office elastics.

It seems counterintuitive, based only on what passes for fetish porn, that a dude doesn’t show up to come on their faces, just to satisfy convention. But Paige White is the real deal, and the viewer must be content with the fantasy that the two subjects are now primed to come over his house later.

The final scene involves Bella, wandering around in a blindfold, finally being given permission to come via a strap-on tethered to the mouth of Lee. Then they are placed back in their cage, and the lights go out. I hope the cleaning staff didn’t freak out when they came by later.