July 6, 2022July 15, 2022 by dallas

The Rundown: ‘Natural Beauty Vol. 5’ (VOD Exclusive)

Basics

Andrej Lupin‘s Natural Beauty Vol. 5 is beautiful, passionate sex with the slightest pang of existential dread. It’s as if the filmmakers are reminding us that all pleasure is inherently fleeting, and that’s exactly what makes it so special. Gorgeous, reflective musical moods and melodies, as if ripped from the pages of Georges Delerue or Yann Tiersen, play pensively in the background. The movie offers five scenes of expertly photographed, edited, and scored sex featuring eyepopping European talent.

Scene highlight(s)

Scene three (“In Clouds”) instantly makes you wonder how things will play out. We see Skye Blue and Angelo Godshack embark on a journey in a hot- air balloon, the landscape expanding before them as they exchange flirtatious glances. Are we about to witness the first-ever porn scene shot from thousands of feet in the air? Not quite, but what SexArt provides goes beyond such gimmickry. When Blue and Godshack return to earth, they find themselves in a steamy embrace inside the balloon’s deflating canopy. The light shining through the balloon’s fabric lends a surreal edge to the proceedings. It’s as if the balloon’s slow, inevitable deflation is intended to mirror the inevitably finite nature of pleasure and life. Or, hey, maybe it’s just one hell of a cool visual! Either way, it works stupendously well, even after Blue and Godshack move to the bedroom for the scene’s climax.

The movie opens with “Hangover,” a sweet sequence involving chivalry, breakfast, a dropped hairbrush, and sex. “Closeness,” the movie’s second scene, focuses intently on a dreamy hookup between Antonia Sainz and Max Dior. It unfolds largely with the usual in-your-face emphasis on penetration but climaxes with an intense creampie. Scene four (“Let’s Do It”) chronicles an urgent hookup that begins in a stairwell, featuring Anissa Kate and Kristof Cale. The movie wraps up with Josephine Jackson teasing Nick Ross with some gorgeous white lingerie. (The movie unspools largely without dialogue, or with dialogue that’s hidden behind music. This final scene, entitled “One to One,” includes a few strands of dialogue in English.)

Why we love it

The performers in Natural Beauty Vol. 5 seem genuinely to enjoy sex and each other’s company. You’re instantly swept into their world and aroused by their adventures. While the stylized environments certainly don’t suggest naturalism per se, the stars radiate it at every moment. Plus, the music creates a great deal of the mood, at times making it seem like we’re watching excerpts from a beautiful European art film. Natural Beauty Vol. 3 became a durable bestseller on the AE charts, and part five seems destined to follow in its footsteps.