By Laura Medina
After being an anti-porn feminist who dived deep into the porn industry, that makes billions off the ancient tradition of the male gaze in today's contemporary porn industry, "Pleasure" is a realistic, rough, and raw take on today's porn industry.
Experienced thru a spunky nineteen years-old Swede, Bella Cherry, watch how this porn star-wanna be navigates the rough and raw waters of the porn industry.
It shines the spotlight on an industry that caters, satisfies, and drives then profits off on peccadillos and tumescence.
It literally dives deep on what it takes to be porn star. It's all about boundaries, limits, tastes, kinks, and how far one will go and which boundaries to break and how to take advantage of kinks, in order to get ahead.
Yes, "Pleasure" is a flipped version mirroring mainstream Hollywood but in the lucrative sub-industry and sub-culture of the porn industry, headquartered behind the mountains of Los Angeles, hidden away from mainstream Hollywood in Los Angeles proper, the Valley and the Inland Empire, away from prying eyes.
Since this movie was made in 2018, two years after the #MeToo movement yet a year before officially creating intimate coordinator jobs, the existing porn actors acting in "Pleasure," took it upon themselves to be inherent intimate coordinator based on years of wisdom, experience, position knowledge, and empathy. Evelyn Claire, as established hard-core yet analytical, career-driven porn star, Ava, said it would had been nice if they did had an intimacy coordinator on set, back in 2018. Evelyn, who's a real life porn actress, said that established porn actors aging out of porn, are evolving into intimacy coordinators for both mainstream tv and film and porn.
Just like the mainstream Hollywood, protagonist Bella Cherry, questions how far and how deep (pun intended) she's willing to go to get ahead to be a porn star.
Director Ninja Thyberg spotlights the psychological toll and the mental abuse that performers have to endure, that are just as punishing as the physical toll while highlighting daily important matters, such as hygiene safety. The movie opens with Bella awkwardly shaving her pubic area-quickly and badly, a newbie mistake. All these are a direct correlation in consent on what performers are willing to do, as in saying no to hygiene matters and certain acts.
In more extreme porn shootings and scenes, the female majority crew members constantly shout out "consent, red means stop while green means go." In a very rough scene fantasy shoot, Bella being the lone woman, questions whether she puts her foot down in a rape scene or being stoic about it, in order to be professional.
Newly arriving in the Valley, porn veteran, Bear (played by real life porn actor, Chris Cock) is giving fresh-faced Swede, Bella Cherry, timely advice that applies to both mainstream Hollywood and sub-industry underbelly porn business, paraphasing, "Watch out for those girls you're living in that model house. They cheat. They steal your job and man. They lie to get ahead."
Not wanting to give anything away, Bear's advice warning foretells what Bella will eventually do as she rises up the porn industry. This is where naive Bella literally turns the table on Ava, experiencing vengeance as empowerment.
"Pleasure" spotlights opportunities of vulnerabilities exposing performers to sexual harassment in order to be professionals that cater to out of the norm tastes and desires, that makes them question how far will they go and if they're willing to stay in the business.
"Pleasure" is certainly not for everyone yet feminist director Ninja Thyberg is deep enough to spotlight the inner workings of a billion dollar industry that is here to stay.
No comments:
Post a Comment