In all this critic’s years of watching pornography (and granted, they may not be as numbered as, say, Mark Kernes’, but they’re fairly substantial, nonetheless), never before these eyes has unfurled anything quite as stunning, as viscerally stupefying, as artistically spellbinding as Stuntgirl.

You who are reading this may be inclined to think such a statement smacks of hyperbole — but you should hold out judgment on that ’til you’ve seen it. Like a fever dream dredged from the brainpans of David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Darren Aronofsky and Gerard Damiano, Stuntgirl is, unequivocally, a work of pure art. Not “pornographic art” or “artcore” or whatever other term you fancy … just plain, absolutely brilliant art. And Jack the Zipper is the new Wunderkind of Porn.

Taking you on a journey through drunken seediness, mad orgiastics and red-drenched hotel trysts, this is a stylistic explosion of haunting mood music and palpable eroticism. Just view the scene between Manuel Ferrara and Venus; it’s as true and scorching and gorgeous as any sex scene that’s ever been shot. We could say more, but we need to squeeze in our pre-noms, so here they are: Best Coupling (Venus/Ferrara), Best Group Scene (Club Scene), Best Videography (Zipper), Best Editing (Zipper), Best Music (Rapestate), Best Director – Non-Feature (Zipper), Best All-Sex Release.