There is no shortage of explicit, exciting action in Video Secrets, which spills more than a few across its 145-minute runtime. But more than any blowjob, cumshot, or climax, Avery Cristy’s eyes are what stuck with me the most. Director Kayden Kross lingers on them at several key moments of discovery, confrontation, and transformation. They seem to reach beyond the screen and into the viewers themselves, who in turn begin to wonder who is the watched and who is the watcher. It’s an appropriate representation of the movie’s broader themes, which contemplate the breathtaking power that can be contained within a few flickering images on a screen.
We open on Seth Gamble, who trains an old-fashioned film camera on Kenna James and Lilly Bell as they tease their way into a threesome. At one point, he places the camera on its side and leaves it running as he moves in for a more intimate embrace. The movie cuts between shots from this camera and a more traditional third-person vantage point. There’s a whiff of something illicit and even transgressive, but at this point, we’re not sure what. When Kenna mentions “body shots” as she dribbles booze down her breasts and stomach, it’s clear Kross wants us to contemplate the word “shot” in its filmic sense.
The movie segues to a casual morning between Seth Gamble and Avery Cristy. They have the relaxed demeanor of a couple getting comfortable enough with one another that things have become almost boring. (“You’re flossing in front of me!” she jibes. “Would you prefer if I didn’t floss?” he responds.) As they prepare for their day, Avery realizes she can’t find her leather skirt. She rummages through an old storage trunk, inadvertently discovering a canister of film labeled “Kenna and Lilly.” Suspicious, she threads the film through a nearby projector and turns it on. The footage depicts the threesome we saw the beginning of a few minutes earlier, this time in full, explicit detail. (I can’t help but think of the classic sequence in Hardcore, when George C. Scott watches footage that demonstrates all too vividly the new career a wayward family member has taken up. Cristy’s reactions are far more controlled than those of the voluble Scott but just as compelling in their own way.) Interestingly, while the scene begins strictly as a depiction of the filmed reel Avery is watching, it soon opens up into a mix of third-person views and cellphone footage from Bell and James. While this is obviously in part an attempt to turn the threesome into a more traditional porn sequence, it also makes us wonder if Avery’s imagination is filling in details that the film reel is leaving out.
Aghast, Avery returns to the bedroom not knowing what to think. She works out some of her aggression by demanding to ride Seth’s face, grinding her way to an intense orgasm. (Seth isn’t quite sure what to make of it, but he quite literally enjoys the ride.) Desperate to know more, Avery tracks down Lilly’s address and knocks on her door. She loses her nerve at the last minute, though, and hides around the corner when Lilly answers. This puts her in the perfect spot to sneak a voyeuristic view of Bell’s hookup with Anton Harden, whose unmissable physical gifts prop up a scene that otherwise seems a bit like filler. In the context of the story, it does not elucidate much in terms of plot or character, but as sex, it’s appealing and erotic. Perched behind a window, Avery becomes the same voyeur that we the viewers are every time we watch porn.
Avery returns home, even more flustered and filled with sexual tension than ever before. She makes passionate love to Seth, with an aggression that’s clearly informed by everything she’s learned and seen. “What has gotten into you?” Seth ponders. The movie’s final scene is a classic Kross combo of emotional catharsis and sexual swagger. Having seen Lily in action, Avery now turns her attention to hairstylist Kenna. She pretends to be a client and confronts Kenna while the latter is shampooing her hair. Ever the master film stylist, Kross creates a fabulous visual in the inversion of Cristy’s face as she reclines in the salon shampoo chair. Given the situation and position, Avery should be the vulnerable figure in this scenario, but her locked-in stare flips the script. Kenna proceeds to flip it back in a marvelous third-act coup that leads into the movie’s final threesome, featuring a welcome return from Harden. Suffice it to say, the term “rebalancing” is used to just as effective double meaning as “body shots” was at the opening.
Baskin’s Bottom Line
The art of the affair is leaving no trace. Pay cash for everything, use a separate cellphone, and keep your mouth shut. That’s why it may seem strange that a serial adulterer like Video Secrets’ Seth Gamble would leave a trail of video evidence recording his dirty deeds. Then again, maybe he wants to get caught. There’s an intriguing ambiguity to Gamble’s performance that allows for this interpretation, but ultimately, Video Secrets is Avery Cristy’s movie from start to finish. It’s a testament to her onscreen presence that in a movie boasting stars as massive as Anton Harden, her eyes are the most penetrating visual of all.