Crescendo (Ninn Worx) Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  9/29/2006

The Little Details

Running Time: 131 min.

Production Date: 7 / 21 / 2006

Director: Lorraine Sisco

Cast: Audrey Hollander, Daisy Marie, Faith Leon, Holly Morgan, Kelle Marie, Nevaeh, Jerry, Mr. Marcus, Otto Bauer, Scott Nails, and Tyler Knight

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: Lorraine Sisco has a fantastic artistic eye that's been developing very well. She told me that she's very proud of this one, which only elevates my already high hopes a little more.

Initial Reaction: It's visually amazing, and easily Sisco's best work so far.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody looking for porn that's as creative and artistic as it is sexual

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody who wants plain, straightforward porn without any care put into things like art direction

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The technical aspects are excellent. With the exception of part of the fourth scene, which sounds like a fan took over a bit of the audio, the audio is excellent. It's very well balanced and clear, and every bit as clear as you'd expect from a NinnWorx movie. The video is just as good, starting with an anamorphic widescreen presentation. Here, the anamorphic transfer really stands out, as the use of light, color, and visual imagery really stands out, and it would really be a tragedy if a corner were cut to give this a non-anamorphic transfer. Hell, Crescendo is so visually impressive it's one of the few adult movies I've watched this year that seems like it would benefit from a really big screen. That's right, baby, it's time for NinnWorx to go IMAX, and Crescendo looks to be just the movie for it. Okay, maybe that's a little too big, but it's worth a try!

Music: The music was composed by Loren Alexander, and shows some definite care. It has the typical very sexy feel that's common to movies associated with Ninn and his studio, and goes between dominating the audio and completely disappearing. As usual, this helps out both the music and the sex by letting them play on each other both when they're there and when they're not.

Borderline False Advertising: The cover lists both interviews and behind the scenes as being on the DVD. Although there are some interviews in the behind the scenes featurette, listing them separate as they are here makes it look like there's a little more to the DVD than there is. I'm deducting a half point from the overall score because of this.

Menus: The main menu has a feminine and artistic feel that works very well for the movie, and gives a good first impression for the DVD. Oddly, and unlike the main movie, it's presented in a non-anamorphic widescreen format rather than an anamorphic widescreen format. The chapter menu is artistic, but a bit generic, and just lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of each scene.

The Feature

After running up endless staircases and through dark tunnels, Faith finds herself naked and chained in a mental cell of her own construction. Trapped there she tries to find answers to her questions about her sexuality. She quickly learns that answers aren't always easy to find, and that she must search the sexual dreams which have been haunting her for the answers she seeks.

Scene 1 – Holly Morgan and Jerry, Faith Leon

Faith's first dream has her in an orange corset with her ankles spread apart and tied to a bamboo rod, a bamboo rod holding her arms behind her back where her wrists are tied together, and a pair of bamboo rods pinching her outstretched tongue to act as a gag. There's even smaller bamboo rods pinching her nipples and holding her pussy lips apart tied around her as Holly, in a girly yellow dress with black and gold shoes, dances around in front of her and runs her hands around herself. Jerry arrives and greets Faith with a kiss as he explores her a bit before moving over to firmly grasp Holly's breasts as she works herself to an orgasm before dropping down to passionately lick her shaved slit. She reciprocates nicely on Jerry's cock orally while continuing to play with her pussy a little, and then lets him fuck her from behind. Holly also rides Jerry reverse cowgirl style and in the traditional cowgirl that shows off her ass so well. Jerry pulls her in for a passionate kiss after she looks like she might have had a nice orgasm, and then lets her get down to collect his seed on her face with it going from her chin to her eye as she flashes a couple nice smiles and plays with the cum a little.

This is a darn hot scene! Holly looks fantastic, and she and Jerry really look to have some great chemistry. The scene is just a tad on the long side, but it's very easy to live with it due to the fantastic visuals and the passion between them. Faith looks great at the start as well, and I think my only complaint about the scene can be that once the action really started between Holly and Jerry, that Faith wasn't anywhere to be found afterwards. The outfit she had on can't have been easy to get into, so having a little more of it in the scene would have seemed like a little better payback. At the same time, it also looked far from comfortable, so I don't blame Lorraine for not keeping her in it any longer than was needed. This is a great scene to start out with!

Scene 2 – Audrey Hollander, and Otto Bauer, Faith Leon

Faith's next dream revolves around a man smoking a cigar. That man turns out to be Otto, dressed all in black, who hands his cigar off to Audrey, in a black dress, heels, and small black cap with a veil, as Faith crawls in wearing ankle and wrist cuffs with a dildo strapped into her cunt. Otto directs Faith to Audrey, and then leads her over and turns her around to present all of Faith to her. Although Faith wants his cock, she's left on the sides as Otto eats Audrey's pussy and lets her suck his cock. They all look over to admire themselves in a mirror, and also take some time to admire a large photo of Faith that appears to be from one of Sisco's earlier movies before working the cigar around the photo's mouth and letting Faith lick at the end. Otto goes back to licking Audrey's pussy and fingering her holes, and of course offers her a taste of his fingers, with Faith writhing on the floor watching them. Audrey gets on her knees so Otto can fuck her throat, and then lays back for him to quickly tongue her pussy before fucking it missionary style as she lies back in an overwide chair. Audrey gets on top for a reverse cowgirl anal ride and fingers her pussy at Otto's command as Faith rolls to her back to turn around, watch, and diddle herself a little more. They walk over to Faith with Otto's cock in Audrey's ass so the girls can kiss, and Otto has Faith move her ass against the mirror to make sure the dildo gets pushed deep into her. He slides a cigar into Audrey's ass before jamming his cock in with it from behind, and finally pops on the cigar as it sticks out of Audrey's ass as Faith comes around to watch it. Otto pulls it out, wipes up the cum from Audrey's ass around it, and then hands it up so Audrey can eat the cum off it.

This is another darn hot scene. As usual, Otto and Audrey are more than a little intense, and Faith fit into the scene extremely well seeming just a tad reserved or unsure of herself. I love how the scene moves along, and although Otto's shouting dominance doesn't do a lot for me personally, it does work extremely well for the scene and worked better for me here than normal. Most of all, I loved the photo of Faith being worked into the scene and the cigar play. Having Otto cum on it and then letting Audrey enjoy his cum from the cigar was a fantastic ending, and although there have been a few other directors who have done something similar to this, none have done it as well as Ms. Sisco has here. This is another very hot scene, and my only hope was that they didn't use something like a Fuente, Cohiba, or Montecristo in the final segment.

Scene 3 – Faith Leon, Kelle Marie, and Nevaeh

Faith wants blondes Kelle Marie and Nevaeh, both dressed all in white, to take her next, but instead they seem to just want to play with each other in a wintery landscape. They kiss each other, lick a snowball, and run their hands around themselves and each other as Faith watches from a white throne-like chair. Nevaeh, who's slightly blonder than Kelle, pulls down Kelle's white bloomers to check out her pussy and finger it as Kelle gyrates in front of her and Faith watches from her throne. Faith breaks them apart so Kelle can eat Nevaeh's pussy, and can't resist rubbing her own pussy as Nevaeh vocally lets Kelle know how well she's eating her out. They share a kiss when Kelle comes up before moving over to Faith, where Kelle caresses Faith's tits and kisses her while Nevaeh goes right to work on her down below. Not content with what she's received, Faith demands more, and turns around for Nevaeh to fuck her with a glass beaded dildo while Kelle works on her own twat with another glass dildo. Finally, the girls suck their toys clean.

This is a very nice all girl scene. I really like how the scene moves from Faith watching Kelle and Nevaeh work on each other to the girls coming over to work on Faith and let her play with them. There's a part of me that would have liked a touch more back and forth action between the girls, but it also works very well as it is because the scene is about Faith's pleasure. Once again the settings are fantastic and the girls beautifully outfitted, and it makes this a beautiful and very sexy scene. Lorraine Sisco shows that she doesn't need any cocks around to work her magic here.

Scene 4 – Faith Leon, Mr. Marcus, and Tyler Knight

After a bit of spaghetti that flies into the wall when she's done with it, Faith gives in to some of her darker desires. She lies back on a table for Mr. Marcus to eat her pussy before pushing him away and calling Tyler to her to continue eating her out. Faith magically moves to a high backed velvet chair to suck Marcus's cock, and then turns around for him to fuck her from behind. She magically moves back to the table for Tyler to fuck her missionary style before going back to Marcus for a reverse cowgirl ride while sucking Tyler's cock down her throat. Tyler disappears for Marcus to fuck Faith from behind over the table, and Marcus brings his contribution to a close popping on Faith's ass. He kisses her before she pushes him away as Tyler returns to give her a facial.

This scene left me with fairly mixed feelings. On one side, the passion between Faith and the guys drives the scene extremely well, and the camera work does a great job letting you see all around the scene. On the other hand, the jumping between the guys only to have them come together and then go separate again gave the scene a slightly odd feeling. Thankfully the chemistry in the scene is much stronger than jumpiness, and leaves this a very positive and very hot scene that once again, was visually stunning and very hot.

Scene 5 – Daisy Marie, Faith Leon, and Scott Nails

Faith dons a black latex outfit with the tits cut out along with a full mask with white outlines for the eyes and mouth. She struts around a pool before walking in, dancing a little, and then resting against the edge as Daisy, wearing a black mesh hood, bra, and panties, and Scott, dressed all in black, caress each other on a bridge at the end of the pool. Scott leads Daisy into the pool on her leash and kisses her a bit before stripping off her hood to kiss her as Faith crawls around the bridge almost like a cat reaching out to them and being ignored. Daisy sits back on the bridge to get her shaved slit licked and fingered before letting Scott sit back so she can mouth his mammoth meat in return. Daisy climbs up to ride Scott cowgirl style wearing only her belly chain, shoes, and bracelets before hopping off to suck him clean. She climbs back up for a sidesaddle fuck while working in a little more oral, and then lets Scott bone her from behind. Faith moves in as Scott fucks Daisy, and slides underneath her so he can fuck her missionary style. He works his cock between the girls, and then lets Daisy give him a couple quick sucks before holding Faith's head as Scott gives her a facial. Daisy sucks out the last little bit from Scott's cock and kisses it off Faith's face while also sharing a few kisses with her.

This scene literally gave me the chills. Scott and Daisy have fantastic chemistry together, and I love the little play Faith has in the fetishwear. The beauty and the fetish come together marvelously, and the visuals completely drew me in. This is an amazing scene to finish things with, and manages to mix simplicity with beauty and fetish.

With the cutoff to be eligible for the AVN awards each year occurring at the end of September, this is the month that the studios frequently bring out their big guns for the year. Anybody who's paid much attention to porn or the awards can easily name some of the people who are going to be flexing their muscles this time or year, and can often pick out which movie was being held back or worked on until the last minute to qualify. Amidst all that hustle and bustle, there's a few truly great adult movies that come out where people aren't quite expecting them, and Crescendo is one of them.

I can't tell you what the last adult movie was that I had to stop just to absorb and marvel in the beauty of what was before me, but I know that I had to do it several times watching Crescendo. With Catalyst and Clique, Sisco often felt to me like she was still feeling things out a bit and trying to figure out where she was going now that she moved out of the smaller fetish market into the big pond to swim with one of the big fishes. With Crescendo, there's a confidence here that doesn't falter like it did a little in the past and strengthens the entire movie. As a movie, it's artistic, but also beautiful, sexual, passionate, and has an emotional depth as Faith explores her dreams to answer questions about her sexuality that I rarely see. It's a vignette movie, yet so much more than that. Things might not be perfect in the scenes, but at the same time the glimpses of imperfection almost work to the movie's benefit because it gives it that much more humanity. Crescendo is an awesome movie of sexuality, and one that has amazed me like few others this year.

The Extra Stuff

Trailers are included for Lorraine Sisco's Catalyst and Clique. The photo gallery lasts nearly nine minutes with about five seconds per very good looking snapshot or full screen photo. Unfortunately, there's a horribly placed watermark for Michael Ninn's website that interferes with many of the photos. There's also a behind the scenes featurette.

The behind the scenes featurette lasts just over a half hour. After a few quick flashes around the movie with photos being taken of the girls, Lorraine goes to work going through the outfits. Things move around the set with Mario arriving, Faith getting ready, and a fun little interview with Kellemarie as she has a smoke and touches up her nails outside. Nevaeh also has a fun interview before Nikki Hunter shows up to help out with the set for the interracial scene before Faith gets a little action. Otto and Audrey's scene is next, where Lorraine works with them for what she has in mind for the scene and Otto coming up with a few suggestions. Daisy gets a fun little interview as well before posing by the pool, and Faith gets a little time in her fetishwear. The only thing that's missing here is a bit of Holly and Jerry's scene, but this is still a very nice featurette. There's plenty of personality as well as showing the movie being made, and it never starts to drag.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Straight, bondage, voyeurism, masturbation, toys, smoking, anal, ass to mouth, lesbian, group, interracial, and fetishwear

Raincoat Factor: Very high

Condom Usage: None

The Bottom Line:

Currently, many Ninn Worx DVDs can be found online for between about $15 and $25 with several stores offering them for under $20. Don't even bother looking at the price tag on this one, just go to your favorite Adult DVD Talk affiliate retailer and buy this one! It's a fantastic movie that's beautiful, sexual, and artistic with great technical aspects and some good effort put into the extras. Don't pass this DVD by!

Note to Ninn Worx: Please watch your cover claims a little more closely! You have no idea how much I hated having to dock the overall score on this one to remain fair to everybody!

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me .

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