All Saints: Chapter One

One of the top gay adult releases of 2019, “All Saints, Chapter One” is a creatively audacious, time-twisting tale steeped in the mythology and moody aesthetic of New Orleans with a star-packed cast under the direction of Jake Jaxson. MVP honors to a charming, plainspoken Calvin Banks and the superb Carter Dane, whose carefully measured performance anchors the many story threads as they unravel and come back together.

Each of the four scenes unfold at a languorous pace, running 45 or more minutes apiece, awash in passionate yearning and spiced with an intriguing dominant/submissive interchange. The storytelling doesn’t feel indulgent, despite the deliberate pacing.

Calvin Banks and Adam Ramzi, as a deliriously handsome scholar, author and priest, generate serious chemistry with a sensuous connection between the two men that amplifies their sex. Deep kissing and slurpy, oral favors, eye contact and assplay are superb. Ramzi is a strong, confident topman and Banks submits with obvious delight; at one point, his toes actually curl with pleasure. He stays rock-hard throughout and blasts a gushing cumshot as he’s riding Ramzi that drench the scruffy stud’s face, neck and chest.

Carter Dane makes his debut for CockyBoys as a topman opposite an alluring Levi Karter as a mysterious, guileless sprite. Dane is a compelling actor who can maintain character throughout a sex scene; he enacts a deeply intense dom/sub exchange that is blindingly hot. As they move to fucking, it is a serious sight for sore eyes to watch Dane’s magnificent, muscled physique flexing as he drives his cock deeper into Karter. (Slim, beautiful Sean Ford makes a quick, nonsex cameo that will no doubt pay off in a future episode.)

Francois Sagat is introduced into a third storyline – or a fourth, or is it all one story? — that involves Ricky Roman, whose masculine sensuality meshes nicely with Sagat’s gruff demeanor and hungry sexual appetite. Again there is an alluring dom/sub vibe. Roman pays slavish worship to Sagat’s gorgeously thick, curving cock and balls, while Sagat wolfishly snacks on Roman’s beautiful bubble butt and hole, prepping him for a fuck that is tender and aggressive in turn. Fans of jailhouse scenarios and booted, uniformed authority figures will take particular interest.

The Roman/Sagat episode is heavily intertwined with Dane’s plot thread, which also pulls in Accola (in a key nonsex role), Calvin Banks, Karter and Ramzi and sets up the finale, as well as future episodes.

The fourth and concluding episode of “Chapter One” involves a dazzling series of hookups that brings Josh Moore and Boomer Banks into the mix, joining Sagat as fellow celestial entities, and taking Roman through a ceremonial induction, of sorts. Roman sucks down the mega-cocks belonging to Banks and Moore, while the latter pair separately make furious, passionate love to Sagat and collect his semen for their ritual.

As the storylines begin to converge, more mysteries are uncovered. Calvin Banks and Accola invite along a puzzled Dane as they question Roman about his past. Suddenly, the phone rings, startling everyone. “It’s for you,” Roman says, ending the series on another cliffhanger.

“The end is just the beginning,” promises the film’s enigmatic tagline.

Special kudos to the cleverly designed artwork, a puzzle whose answers are partially revealed after the viewer has paid attention to the film; the thoughtful use of costuming, props, editing and art direction that offer their own clues; evocative use of scoring, which is a lost art in adult; RJ Sebastian’s suggestive cinematography; and terrific location work that is actually integrated into the storyline.

The DVD includes a bonus scene featuring Calvin Banks and Ethan Slade, filmed in New Orleans during the “All Saints” shoot. They share a friendly, flirty chemistry.