The groom is sitting at a table at the wedding reception. The guests are milling about, dancing and drinking close by. His eyes are closed, his pants are down, and his dick is in his best man’s mouth. He climaxes, leaving a sizable dollop of cum on his friend’s chin.
I look around. I’m sitting in a movie theater. The seats are arranged in a semicircle, perfectly framing the picture on the silver screen. To my right is my close friend and fellow journalist Abby Moss, and we’re watching porn together with more than 200 people.
Just days earlier, a surprisingly welcome email made its way into my inbox inviting me to attend the premiere of porn director Erika Lust’s “most expensive” film yet, The Wedding, in Spain. Billed as a two-day, “full immersion in the Lust universe,” this was a hard yes for me. Did I want to go on an all-expense paid trip to Barcelona to watch *the* feminist porn icon’s new movie on the big screen? A red-carpet premiere for a porno? Um, yes, please. Sign me up.
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For the uninitiated, Erika Lust is possibly the most well-known ethical porn director in the world. She has built a juggernaut empire in the industry, centering female pleasure and creating high-quality adult films that are both hot and actually fun to watch (for the storylines too!). This premiere would be her crowning achievement to date: a true red carpet event with all the glitz and champagne to match.
Abby and I got to the airport bright and early, ready for our Spanish adventure. “Should I have a glass of prosecco?” I wondered aloud. After a moment of deliberation, Abby and I decided that perhaps 8 a.m. was a bit early to be hitting the champers and opted for pancakes and bacon in the airport lounge instead.
Two hours later, the day was bright and clear and the weather a glorious 70 degrees as we flew into Spain over the mountains. I was feeling alive.
We rolled up to the Pulitzer Hotel in central Barcelona around 2 p.m. A quick outfit change and off we went in search of tapas and sangria. We spent the day bopping about local bars and restaurants as we awaited that evening’s welcome press dinner—which, frankly, I cannot describe in a way that is going to do it justice. It was one of those really interactive, immersive dining experiences. The first thing they did was put a piece of wet cauliflower in my hand, which I was intended to eat directly off of said hand. Then they came around and gave us these long, double-sided spoons we were supposed to use to feed the person across the table. It was wild. I asked for a regular spoon. I’m no fun.
Just a couple of gals and their sexy, oversized cauliflower.
Several courses and about *checks notes* 500 glasses of wine later, I went back to the hotel to sleep off my mistakes.
After a night of shut-eye, compliments of a lot of sangria, it was the evening of the premiere. Look, I’m a sex educator with over a decade of experience in this field, so I’ve seen a lot of stuff. I once spent an entire weekend wandering around a fetish convention. Meaning, it takes a lot to shock me. Even so, I was deeply intrigued by the concept of a red carpet porn event. This was a Really Big Deal—for me and for the industry.
We live in a world that famously demonizes porn. It’s seen as seedy and bad. This premiere marked a turning of the sex-negative tables, one that would finally see porn celebrated as an art form the same way mainstream movies are. No more of this anti-porn bullshit but porn as deserving of its place amongst quality entertainment. This was a vibe I could get behind.
And let me tell you, it delivered. Erika Lust is known industry-wide for her high-quality ethical porn movies, but this was seriously next-level. We were swept back to a time when porn was made with actual production value in mind, rather than hard-core penetration scenes where the climax (lol) of the movie is a money shot.
In the Golden Age of Porn, circa the 1970s, iconic hardcore skin flicks like Betty Does Dallas, Deep Throat, and Behind the Green Door bordered on mainstream cinema. Betty Does Dallas sold more than 50,000 copies when it landed on videotape in 1978. These movies were highly successful, not to mention highly lucrative, projects.
But while this industry heyday saw a lot of movies with high production value, there was still a level of cheesiness to the scripts and storylines. For reference, see the cringe abduction scene in Behind the Green Door or the camp-fest that is, well, pretty much all of Debbie Does Dallas. The Wedding is not like that. It is seriously funny, well-written, and the acting is sensational. It was basically a Netflix-quality movie, only they left in all the vigorous sex scenes instead of just cutting to the next morning.
*Ahem, spoilers ahead!*
The Wedding is an adult comedy centered around, well, a wedding (obviously). The film follows the relationships and sexploits of various people in attendance, both guests and staff.
The main tension? The happy, horny husband- and wife-to-be’s fear that the groom’s uppity, WASP-y mom is going to find out her son (Dante Colle) and future daughter-in-law (Nicole Kitt) are pansexual and in an open relationship. Side note: The mom (Andi James) had serious Domme energy and I was ready for her sex scene to happen pretty much immediately. Lucky for me, it did, after a bridesmaid (the incredibly sexy Maria Riot) delivers a speech essentially outing the bride and groom as free-loving kinksters.
At first, the mom is pissed, but that doesn’t last very long. She seems to get on board pretty effing fast with the whole pansexual non-monogamy thing. About five minutes after telling her son she’s disappointed in him (while he gets that aforementioned best-man blow job under the table), she’s off hard-core banging the wedding musician (Jason Steel). Happy for her!
It ends the way all weddings should—or at least all weddings in high-budget porn flicks should—with a threesome between the bride, her wedding planner, and the photographer (played by Jade Kush). The groom comes in and sees his new wife getting busy with these hot ladies and looks at her with so much love and joy, I literally started tearing up. Who knew porn could be so…sweet?
It’s a film about love, it’s a film about sex, and it’s really good fun. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was one of the best (and certainly most erotic) experiences I’ve had at the movies in a long time.
There are five sex scenes in total—and yes, I initially figured it might be a little awkward to watch actual sex onscreen with so many of my closest colleagues. After all, I did grow up in a heteronormative, patriarchal culture that hates sex. (Love that for all of us).
Fortunately, The Wedding wasted no time before throwing us into the deep end. The film begins at the reception, with the uptight wedding planner (Romy Fure) wondering where the bride and groom are. Well, they’re outside, kicking off their nuptials with a literal bang. Watching that first outdoor sex scene, I’ll admit, I was like, “Huh. Wow. Yep, that sure is porn and we sure are in a movie theater watching it as a group.” But as the plot progressed, it started to feel…surprisingly normal! The scenes are well-designed, everyone seems to be having a good time, and the production value was no joke. It really felt like watching any other high-budget Hollywood blockbuster, but make it porn. After a couple of minutes, it felt perfectly natural to be sitting in a movie theater, eating popcorn, and watching porn with a bunch of people.
After the screening, we were treated to a Q&A with the film’s stars. They gushed about what it was like working on a movie that had such a huge budget and how it felt to work with a company that places high value on ethics. Actor Panterino (our saucy best man) discussed how wonderful it was to work with an intimacy coordinator who served as a liaison between the actors and crew. This person helped the actors discuss what they were and weren’t comfortable doing onscreen—and helped them all to feel respected and safe. Panterino described the environment as hyper-professional and organized. You simply love to see it.
Not to mention, the actors had amazing chemistry and seemed to genuinely like each other. Jason Steel even remarked that while he’d never done a scene with a cis man before, he’d be open to doing one with Panterino. It was adorable. I found myself getting pretty emotional again. (This was not a great event for my mascara situation.)
There was something so, dare I say, wholesome about the whole experience. I place a lot of value on sex-positivity, and this was an event that really celebrated it. I found myself wondering if this really could be a the beginning of a major shift in the way the mainstream world sees and consumes porn. Might there come a day when regular people are rounding up their friends to go see the latest porn flick together?
I mean, look, I’m a realist. As such, I think that free internet porn is still going to be the thing most people access. It’s readily available and, well, free. (Side note: Pay for your porn, folks!) I wish this weren’t the case, but it is what it is.
This doesn’t mean adult content is doomed, however. I believe this movie premiere proves that. Erika Lust (and many other ethical porn directors) have been super successful in making ethical porn through a female lens. And there’s clearly a hunger for it; people want good, quality smut! Watching videos called “Small Blonde Gets Smashed by Boss” or “Sexy Latina Gets Destroyed” are not everyone’s jam. Some people actually want to get off while watching something that doesn’t center on punish-fucking women.
The Wedding seems to mark a turning point in how we view adult content. We may be moving back, or perhaps forward, to an era where porn is actually given time, money, and attention—this time with a feminist, ethical, and female-pleasure-focused lens in mind. This movie proves that porn can be high quality, funny, and hot all at the same time. Porn can be art. It should be celebrated and it deserves to have its rightful place in the entertainment industry. I’m hopeful that this movie (and others like it in the future) may help to shift attitudes about sex in a more positive direction. If we can have more high-quality porn movies like The Wedding available to us, suddenly sex onscreen becomes more normalized. And in that, sex itself becomes more normalized. I love that future for us.
Now, I still don’t know how many people would round up their pals to go watch porn at the movies together, but I can imagine a world where that could be possible. If more of these films get the same treatment and investment as The Wedding, maybe one day we’ll all be chilling with some popcorn ready to watch porn with the girls on a casual Wednesday evening. Fingers crossed.
TL;DR: 10/10 would porn-premiere again. Take me back to Lustland, please.
Gigi Engle is a writer, certified sexologist, sex coach, and sex educator. Her work regularly appears in many publications including Brides, Marie Claire, Elle Magazine, Teen Vogue, Glamour and Women’s Health.