Just as Hollywood releases a rash of family-oriented movies during the late fall countdown to Christmas, the gay adult industry hurls a handful of leather and fetish features our way each September. After all, the month culminates in San Francisco’s internationally renowned Folsom Street Fair.
Indeed, Titan Media had the smarts to become a co-producer of the fair, so its entry in this yearly March of Machismo could be called the Fair’s Exclusive Leather/Fetish Film. They got the jump by introducing Folsom Leather at this year’s International Mr. Leather event, but its broader release will be bolstered by the Fair. Titan’s even kinkier Fear (not yet seen by this reviewer) will literally hit the streets at the Fair itself.
Aside from its copious pissings and forceful fistings, Folsom Leather is most notable for its lack of bombardment. Handsomely--shall I say, discreetly, directed by Brian Mills, it delivers the goods over a course of 2 1/2 hours without distraction. The film has been cleanly videographed and well edited--meaning its point of view will not induce nausea, and its calm choice of footage satisfies our desire to observe without whiplash. The darkly inviting environment resembles a sex club, but has been artfully designed within the Titan studios for filming. Eliminating a sex club’s close clutter, this mysterious sex-world expansively reaches off into dark, its few architectural elements masculine and strong.
The movie’s action has been similarly well thought out, providing the players with a situation, and then standing back to let them play at length with seeming spontaneity. And although there’s fisting, pissing and a brief flogging, Mills doesn’t make production numbers of the extreme sex--he shows restraint where other director are compelled to stage manage a circus of extravagant shock. So the action feels real.
It’s certainly good looking. The leather gear provided by Leatherpost looks grand, and is worn by men born to it--Titan stars Tober Brandt, Alex Baresi, Francois Sagat, along with sleek muscle stud Tyler Saint, handsome Adam Faust, tower of strength Arpad Miklos, and the aptly named daddy, Butch Grand. Plus the perfectly delectable David Korben, a fair haired and furry dude with lush nipples, a bear’s paw swipe of claw marks tattooed across one pec, and a meaty, uncut cock. I suspect, and hope, that we’ll be seeing a lot more of him.
Korben’s bout with Adam Faust begins with a strong suck and fuck and proceeds to a fascinating fisting (all the movie’s fisting, WS and some of its flogging are available only on the Director’s Expanded Edit). Among the two hours of Bonus Content, you’ll no doubt enjoy as much as Mr. Korben does the deep dildo workout he gets from Faust.
The opening scene’s three-way features a torrent of pissing, with Francois Sagat and boyishly butch newcomer Rick van Sant drenching each other. The tastily photogenic van Sant has an unbelievably talented ass, which he gives up to a couple of fists. Sex wear fetishists will enjoy his open crotch leather jock, which shows off his heavy chrome cockring, and friends of the rosebud will enjoy his relaxed sphincter.
I was suitably impressed by Alex Baresi’s scene with cigar-smoking muscle bear Butch Grand and hairy Arpad Miklos. Baresi’s so unusually handsome, and seems so pleasantly content to be worked over that his scenes are always standouts. Here, two large and solid men show him little mercy, flooding him with piss, fucking him fervently and then fisting him, too. A surprise and appreciated occurrence arrives when Butch Grand flips from top to (momentary) bottom.
My favorite scene, though, is the finale, because that’s where we get the splendid body, meaty cock, and ferocious attitude of Tober Brandt. He’s excitingly paired with the smoothly ripped Tyler Saint, who tongue polishes Brandt’s boots with the lube of Brandt’s spit and piss. Rick van Sant joins Saint in tag teaming Brandt’s bounteous ass, and then Adam Faust arrives to shove both his fists up van Sant’s ass.
If you’re looking for strongly masculine, straightforward leathersex that veers into kink, Folsom Leather is a strong recommendation.
Leather Inside presumes to cater to leathermen and their admirers, but is more successful presenting leather fashion than leather sexuality. It’s part of the Man-Size series from PurePlay Media, and is the first gay movie directed by veteran het-film maker Susi Medusa. It looks very handsome, with lush color and widescreen presentation, and Medusa’s attention to detail heightens its fetishistic look. Yet there’s a generalized air to the sex. These aren’t “real” leathermen, but sturdy and polished sex professionals dressed like them. There aren’t any extreme sex practices here. There are, instead, glamorous guys wearing fascinating leather fashion as they have strong, but play-acted sex.
Except in the case of young Thomas Lee, who has sex like one possessed in two scenes. In the first, he flip flops with Robert Driveman, a gorgeous blond with expansive pecs and fulsome cock. It’s the movie’s best scene, a sex ritual that’ll feed your need for leather. Director Medusa catches subtle details--the clink of chain, the crinkling rustle of the leather, the dull smack of a nightstick hitting a palm; the sound of the men’s excited breaths, Lee’s muted whimperings of desire as Driveman’s cock hits against his lips. Medusa’s intense focus upon the performers, and their unbroken bond throughout steamy sexplay and forceful fucking make the scene spellbinding.
At movie’s end, Lee returns for a scene almost as good, with Drago Lembeck looking butch/glam in a black mesh tank top. And the swell finale finds movie star handsome Vilem Cage indulging in a ritualized jack off. Two other scenes, though, are standard Eastern European porn. The guys, attractive as they are and draped in expensive, shiny black leathers, are earnest, but there’s little chemistry in their couplings.