Hank reviews Heavenly Spire, a project by Shine Louise Houston which focuses on masculine beauty and sexuality, and how it manifests on different bodies, in a unique cinematic style.

The short review: I totally dig it.

The long review:

Who am I?
My name is Hank and I am a sex educator. I work in the Midwest, in a land of many lakes and many queers. I have been a sex educator for three years. In my job I meet all sorts of people from all walks of life. Aside from educating the masses about what lube to use with what dildo, I review and purchase porn for my place of business.

I am a cis gendered masculine male. Being in my mid twenties, I feel weird referring to myself as a man, and I don’t like boy. I prefer “dude” but I’m quickly identifying with “man” more and more. I identify my sex life as “open” as I am open to try most things.

Why is this important?
Being a sex educator, adult retail buyer and all around sex nerd, I find myself watching a fair bit of porn. Because I watch a fair amount of high quality porn, I find that the porn that I consume for personal use has evolved over time. Gone are the days of consuming free trial videos and “free” Internet porn. Titles such as Tight Places: A Drop of Color and various CrashPad videos all left me feeling empowered to have amazing sex. If the tube sites are the fast food of porn, then queer sex positive porn is the organic bistro that makes that amazing quinoa salad and bake fresh croissants. Something about the real, honest sexuality is infectious and leaves the consumer feeling good. These titles were/are amazing however, they sometimes left me feeling a little left out. This is why I was excited to see that Heavenly Spire exists.

Masculinity is one of those subjects in which we as a culture find ourselves tripping over ourselves. What is masculine, and what does masculinity mean in this modern age? To answer that, I would need multiple books and would still be wrong. The thing about Heavenly Spire that piqued my interest was the use of the term “masculine beauty”. This language is sexy and fucks with the patriarchal construct of masculinity enough to make me say “Oh Fuck Yeah.”

What I Thought:
This is the masculine focused porn that I want to see. I left these films and shorts feeling as I did with the other queer porn I discussed earlier. I felt empowered in my sexuality and identity. There were a number of scenes I had felt as though I was being accurately represented.

Just as many may not find that the “traditional” porn star is an accurate avatar for their sexuality (maybe to their enjoyment) I find that many masculine porn performers do not reflect my sexuality or me as a human. This is fine to an extent, but I find that I am more emotionally invested in porn that I can connect with. I connect with Heavenly Spire and its take on sexuality.

Things I loved:
I loved the interviews with the performers before the scene. This humanizes the performer and strengthens my connection with them. Often I felt as though I knew this person in real life. These interviews came off as genuine and insightful. During second viewings, I found myself looking for aspects of the scenes that may have been shaped by these interviews. I also loved how these conversations modeled communication between performers and the audience.
I also really liked the bodies that were showcased in these films. Masculinity is complex and this is seen in Heavenly Spire’s videos. All different types of bodies are on display in their own sexy way. Not every performer is a big muscled guy and not everyone is a skinny and trim guy. We see variance and that is important.

Another genius touch is the use of facial emotion as a focal point. It is well known that there are numerous universal emotions that register on the face (Ekman 1972). Heavenly Spire plays with these facial indicators of emotions in a true and genuine way. Often a scene may focus on genitals for a few moments, and then cut to a shot of a performer’s face. The emotion of the moment translates to the viewer in a way that feels real, and engaging.

Some Things I Would Change:
So I love the film cuts from genital to facial emotion. However, there were a few times where this cutting felt awkward or a beat too fast or a beat too slow. This might be more reflective of me than the product itself.

A main frustration that I faced was with sound. There are some videos where the sound was not in synchronization with the film itself. Though this is not in most of the product, there was a spot or two where it was clear. Another frustration was with some of the music. Indie filming is indie filming, and scoring a scene can cost a lot, but some of the music did not translate well. The score is mainly instrumental piano. In most scenes I did not notice it, but in some piano felt out of place and awkward.

Final Verdict:
If someone is considering purchasing films from Heavenly Spire, I would enthusiastically support their decision to check it out. This is trailblazing porn that addresses an audience that may be overlooked. As I stated before, masculinity is a tricky subject to address. This is especially true in an industry that caters to a specific image of masculinity. Heavenly Spire offers an open discussion about masculinity in an erotic light. If you want to see beauty in the masculine form, Heavenly Spire is for you.