Review

The porn community has been clamoring for Graham Travis' sophomore directorial effort after last year's Portrait of a Call Girl was so critically acclaimed and heavily awarded, including winning AVN's first-ever Movie of the Year award.

He's created a worthy follow-up with Wasteland, a sex-drenched yet heartfelt story of two long lost friends played by Lily Carter and Lily LaBeau who reconnect in a powerful way. In many respects, Wasteland has much of the same look and feel of POACG, as Travis masterfully mixes in many of the cinematic devices that POACG had, including the similar use of tracking shots, flashbacks, voiceovers and music (which is stellar), so fans of Travis' debut directorial work will feel at home here.

However, in Wasteland, Travis tackles a different emotional depth in telling the story of a once-tight friendship gone on divergent paths. Anna (Carter) and Jacky (LaBeau) are old school friends who haven't seen each other in five years. Their friendship gets rekindled when Anna decides to visit Jacky, resulting in a passionate, emotional and sexually adventurous night in Los Angeles.

It's clear when we meet the two female leads that they couldn't be more different: Anna is shy and introspective; a naïve small-town girl searching for adventure if she could only find the courage. Jacky is blunt and cynical, preferring the temporary material things in life, like wanting a Ferrari compared to Anna wanting to find deeper emotional connections to the world around her.

While you can immediately see the differences highlighted in small ways, it's not until the girls go out for the night that you can see the gulf between the types of their personalities: Anna is content to slow dance while Jacky is getting fucked in the bathroom by a dude she just met. Anna happens to stumble into seeing this and is content to listen, perv out a little bit, and take it all in. Jacky seems intent on pushing her friend's sexual limits.

When the girls leave the bar, Jacky hitches them a ride and before long they are parked in an alley with Jacky egging her friend on to give the guy oral sex. Crouched down, with Jacky rubbing her pussy behind her, Anna at first is tentative, but quickly acquiesces to her sexual urges. Clearly this turns her on, because it's barely a couple minutes after arriving back at Jacky's place that the gals engage in a passionate coupling. They then proceed to drink some more and share things they haven't ever told each other, and Anna has her feelings hurt when Jacky says she doesn't believe in a "forever" friendship; this spurs the pair to go at it again with more of an aggressive edge.

Following some kissing and making up from that angry tryst, Anna shares with Jacky that she saw her fuck a guy she was seeing in the woods while on a group camping trip. This furthers the viewer's already uneasy feelings about Jacky and her disregard for Anna's feelings.

Anna confesses in an emotionally moving monologue summoning tears from both girls that after her cancer-stricken grandmother dies, she'll have no one left. Her parents died in a fire, and it was Jacky who years later brought her out of her shell. Jacky is the only person who she feels connected to, so she wanted to visit in order not to feel alone in life, even though Jacky takes advantage of her emotionally.

At times beautiful and heartfelt, and at others heartbreaking and painful, Travis' story explores a deeply emotional dynamic of friendship and social pressures. Is Jacky just a sadist, running roughshod over Anna and toying with her emotions? Will Anna wise up to Jacky's motivations and leave her in the past where she belongs?

Jacky continues to push Anna's boundaries later that night at a BDSM sex club. While she's into it, you can tell this is new territory for Anna. She gets kinky with Liza Del Sierra and then in a stellar group scene with Jacky and four guys with plenty of sweat and squirt. In one long tracking shot, we can see Anna walking down the hallway with a vacant look in her eyes, emotionally divorced from herself, seeking for something—anything—that will make her feel.

When Anna finally realizes that her and Jacky's friendship isn't healthy and is holding her back, dredging up painful memories of the past, she leaves without saying goodbye.

Travis displays an eagle eye for casting in Wasteland. Carter's luminous beauty, wide-eyed enthusiasm and sense of discovery is perfectly played. LaBeau's streetwise, emotionally manipulative, anything-goes attitude fits her character to a "T."

It should be noted that the sex scenes on disc one containing only the feature have been truncated to better fit the story and the pacing. If you desire to watch the entirety of each sex scene—and believe us, you'll want to—they are included on disc two. Also on disc two are a host of extras including an extended interview with both Lilys, bonus girl/girl scenes of each, behind the scenes, deleted scenes (with an alternate ending) and an interview with director Travis.

 -- Buzz Killington - AVN