Reviews: Chemistry 2
“The sexual chemistry is off the chart you feel it in every scene, which is a big difference from the vast majority of porn flicks, gonzo or feature. Just as revealing are Taormino’s ’roundtables’ and one-on-one confessions.” —AVN (Editor’s Choice)
“I’d heard great things about Chemistry, so I was excited to get my hands on Chemistry, Volume 2. It’s as good as I’d hoped. The premise, if you don’t know, is this: Director Tristan Taormino locks eight porn stars in a house for a day and a half, interviews them, and films them having sex. It’s all unscripted, with no direction, but these are pro performers, of course, so there’s a lot of playing to the camera, and they do pay attention to things like blocking, which probably don’t occur to most “civilians” when they’re having casual sex. (I love how they refer to non-porn-business people as “civilians.”) Then again, there are real moments of openness and honesty, and it’s a rare and intriguing look into the real nature of a world that mostly presents nothing more than a shiny surface to fans. These people are (mostly) not living unconsidered lives; they’ve thought about their work, and the public perception of their work, and their own relationship with the way they choose to make a living, and some of them are capable of talking about such issues very articulately.
It’s a smart movie, too—the opening voiceover slyly mimics that of early reality TV show The Real World, and Tristan asks exactly the right questions to get the performers to comment on the divides between fantasy and reality, artifice and life. I’ve said before that it’s perfectly pleasant to watch beautiful bodies cavort onscreen, even divorced of context, but it’s infinitely more sexy and satisfying to watch beautiful people depicting characters you sympathize with and care about. In this case, it’s not characters, but real people, and the same truth applies – it’s nicer to watch them fuck once we get to know them a little better. At least, they’re no more “characters” than any of us would be if placed in an artificial situation and asked questions by someone sitting behind a camera; a certain amount of artifice is probably inevitable under such circumstances, but by and large these people come across as very genuine. Plus, of course, they’re freaking hot, and they all love to fuck, and do so frequently. This? Is a recipe for greatness.” —Blowfish.com
“It only gets better in this follow-up title. The cast is completely different and so is the sex. It’s all there: the gritty and dirty, the sexy and sensual, the bizarre and kinky, but most importantly, plenty of CHEMISTRY. You get more than your money’s worth of sex footage here. A+++” —Adult Film Database
“So what about the follow up volume? Well, to say that it was more of the same would be to betray the originality of the series; it was still different than most porn available on the market and it was still very fun to watch, with an all new cast of performers allowed the same freedoms as the first one had…The ladies were exceptionally diverse but skilled, and the resulting chemistry of the planned dynamic made it a lot of fun to watch; with the kind of fuck for the buck replayability you’ll want in a porno. Highly Recommended.” —XCritic
“Like the first chapter of the series, Chemistry 2 is laden with plenty of humor, intelligent conversation, tease a plenty and terrific sexual encounters… This isn’t scripted porn, this is real, this is raw and this is Tristan Taormino once again coloring outside the lines of porn norm to shine.” —IW Adult