As her fans already know, AVN Award-winning director Jacky St. James is now directing for Sweet Sinner, the Mile High Media studio started by Nica Noelle as a bastion of couples-oriented erotica with an emphasis on “forbidden” relationships. It’s a type of erotica that dovetails well with St. James’ own interests, and she has made the studio’s template her own in various ways.

Her first title, Interracial Family Needs, stands out not so much for the interracial component of the movie—Tyler Knight plays Doug, the black stepfather of way-too-flirtatious white girl Mia (Sara Luvv)—but for the attention St. James gives to the male characters. Knight, who recently returned from a hiatus, is the emotional center of the movie. Married to high-strung Tasha (Cherie DeVille), he insists that her estranged daughter come visit.

As demands the Sweet Sinner blueprint, Doug inevitably becomes consumed with lust for the sensual and manipulative Mia. But St. James puts her own stamp on it when she focuses on the aftermath of the affair: how it inadvertently affects Doug’s son and his fiancée (Isiah Maxwell and Rachael Madori), and the toll it takes on Doug’s still-intact relationship with Tasha. The emotional currents are charted with the depth that St. James fans have come to appreciate.

Overall, it’s a promising start for this new phase of the director’s career, with much more still to come.