Best New Starlets 2013

Just look at the cover of this box. To be fair, I could take or leave Jessie Rogers, but those other three I just want to scoop up and experience all at once. Amazing, when you get Riley Reid, Maddy O'Reilly, and Remy LaCroix all in one photo. Add in Mischa Brooks and Anikka Albrite, and for me, this is a better film that Performers of the Year from Elegant Angel. For me, the newer talent is usually where the best scenes are. Full points to Elegant Angel for how they put these menus together. Instead of using the standard template of six video clips and a little bit of text, they give us each name and a list of what they're doing. I think there was room to do this all on one page instead of two, but still, this is at least a little bit of thinking outside of the box.

We open with Riley Reid, and it's quite the intro segment from her. She's one of the few who can put on the average amount of makeup and you still feel like you can see her, not buried underneath all of the paint. It's her personality that is going to take her so far in this industry, and you just know that each new thing she tries is going to sell a ton of films. Can you imagine her first anal scene, how many that will sell? Hopefully she won't wait too long, like Lexi Belle did, so that she nails it at the peak of her interest. This intro bit really does go on for awhile. Then there's the tease sequence, and I don't know what it is that Elegant Angel is doing lately, but they just have the worst dancing during their teases lately. They have the skinnier women try to do moves that would fit a curvier body, and it all just winds up looking awkward. There is such a thing as trying to be too artistic, and it feels like that's what they're doing here. I'm not turned on by the awkward dancing, the random camera angles, the silhouettes. It's just directorial masturbating. I moved on to the action. Manuel gets to nail all the lovely ladies, doesn't he? A good spoon bit here, though even Elegant Angel has succumbed to the bad too-low camera angles on their reverse cowgirl. A kind of anal for Riley, as Manuel shoves a couple of fingers up there while nailing her from behind. Maybe he's hoping she's up for it off camera. Good eyes on the facial, and it's a rather amazing shot she takes. Cumshot fans rejoice.

Remy and Mischa star together, so forgive me for skipping that part. A good all-girl scene, but I opted for Maddy O'Reilly's scene. She has the look of a younger Jenna Haze. A bit less makeup would be great, though. I skipped most of the intro and all of the tease this time, and then there's Manuel, once again the man in charge. The colour balance seems to be wrong here, with the talent looking quite orange. A bit of choking during the foreplay, and this one has a bit more energy than the other scenes. Later in the scene the colours seem to normal out a bit, and they work through a ton of different positions. It's another epic facial in the end, too. More thorough this time, really coating her entire face.

There is a bonus scene here, this one with, well, hell, who is that? Running mascara and a great facial in this very energetic scene. I could do without her blowing bubbles with the cum, though. Other bonus features include the usual cumshot recap, trailers, etc. Why they bother with a behind the scenes here is beyond me. Don't we get most of that in the intro?

It's definitely a good disc, though they're more overwhelming with the talent than the action itself. Elegant Angel is still among the elite, but I'm starting to see a few cracks in the armor. I hope I'm just imagining things, but there could be so much more that they're doing. I hope the artistic direction they're taking is an aberration.

Dr. Chauntelle does not use a rating system. Five stars is a default setting only.

FYI: this is going to be a review in layers, starting from most general and moving on to spoiler-riddled detail.

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Ever clever, Elegant Angel started their Best New Starlets (ladies who are coming up versus ladies who are currently dominating) series in 2012. I have the same general things to say about Best New Starlets as I just did about Performers of the Year.

So when I recently received copies of both Best New Starlets 2013 and Performers of the Year 2013, I wondered: what new could I learn from these titles?

Hmmmm... Of course, I learned something!!

My favorite part of Elegant Angel titles in general - well, at least those directed by Mason and William H. - is that they always have some sort of interview footage/lead-in sequence complimenting their very unique, high-end, aesthetically beautiful hard hard sex. Though these interviews and sequences vary in depth and quality (not everyone has something to say, not everyone can pop their ass as well, etc), I always enjoy getting to hear a little from the performers. I like the humanizing dimensions that also function to combat anti-porn folks' ideas that these women are somehow being by pornographers into this stuff - nope!!

Both Best New Starlets 2013 and Performers of the Year 2013 stick with this elegant Elegant format.

Though not as elaborate as Performers of the Year, Best New Starlets 2013 followed the same elegant Elegant format - lead-in interviews and sequences for five scenes (all boy-girls except a girl-girl between Mischa Brooks and Remy LaCroix, a deviation in of itself). I was especially interested in Riley Reid's.

Riley Reid is a sweet-seeming smiley young woman from Florida (if memory serves). And during her interview, she tells us a story that would make anti-porn folks twist with delight.

According to her interview in Best New Starlets 2013, Riley didn't really have much going on and she didn't really know where she was going in life... and she was kinda hard-up for cash... so oh my goodness, she decided to do porn.

And she seems just fine.

She tells her story in a matter-of-fact way, open and happy - all good. I liked her interview because she seems to have every situation-specific characteristic that some people WANT to go all bad. But it didn't, at least not the way Riley tells it here.

I like the interviews that Elegant Angel does with the performers, before and after their scenes. Certainly, some would question their purpose and veracity, but I would suggest those questioners slow their roll - there is much to be learned from women choosing to share their insights in this manner.