Matt and Khym: Better Than Ever.

Hall, David S.

Matt and Khym: Better Than Ever

A film by Tony Comstock

DVD running time 53 minutes plus extras

comstockfilms.com

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

I began my education in sex, like many, by experiment. When I finally had the time and money to go back to school and study it, I found the Institute for Advances Study of Human Sexuality and was introduced to the "pattern films" of the Rev. Dr. Laird Sutton. Laird was one of the crazy Methodist ministers who founded the National Sex Forum and then IASHS and Laird became a master of what he called pattern films. These were films shot while individuals, couples and moresomes did their own sexual thing, mostly without commentary, story line or script. Laird edited the films and created a great library of visual material. I became friends with Laird, since we differed in age by only two weeks, and I even got to hold the mike boom for one shoot of a transwoman describing her new genitalia with great pride.

These were mostly shot in the 70's, were used by sex educators in classroom settings, and were very real, and very 70's. By the late 90's, these films drew laughs from young people, with the old hairdos and clothes, and the zither music in the background. Newer sources became available as Good Vibs, Sinclair, Adam & Eve, etc. began to produce their version of sex education films, but these were full of talking heads (pretty and smart they were) but they were clearly "training films" for people who had often been doing their own thing. Most lacked the realism of Laird's films, the transparent honesty of the lovers, their less than perfect bodies. Often the people were actors, not really lovers.

Along comes the aptly named Tony Comstock to pick up the mantle from Laird, who has retired to his lovely ranch on the California coast. Anthony Comstock was the Postal Inspector in charge of cleaning up the mail and suppressing the vice in this country during one of its repressive periods in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This new, young Tony Comstock is pretty much the opposite kind of guy. I picked up this video after watching a few clips at the SSSS meeting in Indianapolis in November, 2007. I bought a lot of educational material, and still have a lot unopened. But I am glad I opened this one, a pattern film of extraordinary sweetness.

Matt and Khym responded to an Internet request for people to be in an explicit film. They have been together since barely out of their teens, have been through many of life's trials, and are still a very happy, sexy couple. I had the pleasure of meeting them briefly at an event in SF and their kindness to me, a stranger, and delight in each other, is easy to see.

Tony Comstock and his partner Peggy shoot their films much like Laird did, letting the couple do what they do with each other, but they also interview them about their lives. Then Tony does a masterful job of editing the whole thing together, letting them tell their story and show us the love they have for each other, in ways that just cannot be scripted. The only other films that I know about that come close to this level of personal and sexual honesty are the "Faces of Ecstasy" series by Joani Blank, Marianna Beck and Jack Hafferkamp. If you want delicious sex between two people who clearly love each other, buy this DVD.