No Man's Land 27

It should be a compliment to say that "No Man's Land 27" is a film in which the juices are flowing, but the sad fact is that the juices in question are 100% saliva, and where's the compliment in that? To me, there's something so defeatist in a girl repeatedly spitting on her partner that it's almost embarrassing. And this film is chock full of spitters. For whatever sub-segment of the all-girl population that is into such things, NML 27 might be just the ticket, but all others should be wary.

It's too bad, too, because the film has an interesting premise for an all-girl flick. Tiffany Mynx, a columnist for an underground lesbian newspaper called Legs Wide Open, is convinced that the art of eating pussy has been lost amid the nineties/aughts fascination with toys. She sets out to find out why - or to find the perfect lay. I didn't say the premise was handled particularly well.

The sex begins with Tiffany and her date, Monique DeMoan, going at it in Tiffany's living room. Monique is the first to go down on Tiffany and it isn't very long before she asks if Tiffany has any toys. At this point, we don't know about Tiffany's mission; all we hear is the vague disappointment in her voice when she tells Monique where to find them. But this sets up a rarity in sex films, for Tiffany later confesses to her editor that she was actually dissatisfied with both Monique and their sexual encounter. (It's a good thing she says so, though, because we wouldn't have guessed it from the way she comes with Monique.) For the rest of us, the scene isn't dissatisfying at all - except for that damn spitting. One segment has Tiffany simply going to town on Monique's ass, reaming it, two-fingering it, and applying anal beads to it in one of the better examples of bead use.

This is the theme common to virtually of all the film's scenes: good sex erotically diluted by too much saliva. It reaches the peak of absurdity in the last scene when Temptress drenches Tiffany's pussy in it and coos, "Oh, you're so wet." No doubt.

To illustrate Tiffany's point, all of the scenes but the last one feature toy use - strap-ons, anal beads, illuminated vibrators, etc. The strap-on dildo may be the most Jekyll and Hyde toy in existence. The director has to choose whether to shoot from the masculine or feminine perspective. Wesley Emerson hedges his bets here and shoots the first one way and the second the other.

The first is the second sex scene in the film. It's a three-girl affair with Gayle Monique, Alicia, and Norma Jeane. Alicia gets dildo duty and pounds away inside Norma in close-up. This is the masculine point of view, as if the dildo were somehow getting something out of the act. It's one girl getting fucked while the other is reduced to her surrogate penis. I've always found this approach to be too artificial to generate any real eroticism in an all-girl film. Fortunately, Gayle Monique steals the limelight during a segment in which she uses her thumbs and fingers on both the other girls. By the time Norma comes back to help with Alicia, Gayle is up to four fingers and making it look good. What's more, Emerson is smart enough to throw in a number of shots of Gayle's cute face at this point, bringing the scene to a happy climax.

In terms of the narrative, the second sex scene is one shown on videotape by Tiffany to her editor to make her point about toy use. The video is from a movie called Lesbian Anal Rippers, directed by Michelle Bardot (played by Ashley Renee in a non-sex role). The second strap-on sequence occurs in the very next scene, which takes place on the set of Ms. Bardot's latest film. Bunny Luv, the newbie, isn't into girls in her personal life so she says she wants to be totally passive during the scene. Old pro Temptress has no problem being dominant - and so the sex begins.

Bunny and Temptress don't remain in character for very long. True, the scene begins with Temptress taking the lead (more spit), but it soon shifts to Bunny in the dominant role and ends with her in the strap-on and in complete control. This sequence is shot mostly from the feminine point-of-view, with the camera at a distance so that we can see both Bunny and Temptress during the act. It is much more erotic than the first scene, though Bunny spits, too.

The next-to-last scene is the film's throwaway, by which I mean it has nothing whatsoever to do with the narrative. Or maybe it's just the weakest of the bunch. In any case, it features Jewel Valmont (who plays Tiffany's editor, by the way) and Kristen (who plays somebody else). If it weren't for the fact that Jewel is a looker, the scene wouldn't have been worth including.

It's the last scene that should have been the best. Tiffany has hooked up with Temptress, who has a very lucrative girl/girl escort thing going when she isn't acting. By this point, Tiffany is so frustrated she is willing to plunk down three hundred bucks to discover the secret of Tiffany's success. And, oh, the scene starts well, all right, with lots of good girl-to-girl kissing that is sensual without the too-light touch of soft-core. And it only heats up when Tiffany goes down on Temptress with some high-grade oral action. But when Temptress takes over the spit starts flowing and all that peaking sensuality is drowned for good.

The features on this DVD are the usual NML bonuses: a gallery of good, clear photos, bios of all the cast members except Ashley Renee, a bunch of phone sex commercials you've probably seen before, as well as the usual trailers for a few of the NML installments.

NML 27 has enough good sex in it to make it a hit with the saliva crowd and too much saliva to make it a hit with the good sex crowd. So should you see it? Only you can answer that question.