"Pleasure" dir. by Ninja Thyberg

"Pleasure"

Where I watched it: Crave

"Pleasure" is the story of a young Swedish woman who travels to LA to make it big in the porn industry.

Not knowing much about her backstory except that she finds Swedes "boring" we are thrown headfirst into an explicit world of smutty casting calls and porn shoots that reek of predatory vibes. One thing this movie is really good at is making you second guess your gut instincts and clearly this is done with intent.

Some scenes will keep you on edge as you fear the worst, but then will alleviate those fears moments later when the productions prove themselves to be handled in professional/consensual manners.

At other times, the opposite happens.

One scene in particular will make you never want to watch porn again.

The acting is surprisingly good despite the majority of the cast being actual porn stars. Not that porn stars can't act, but the bar has always been substantially lower.

The film basically serves as a character study for our lead, "Bella Cherry." It shows a progression of hopefulness to defeat to corruption as her quest for power and spotlight fully consumes her.

Less of a heroes journey and more a glimpse behind the curtain, "Pleasure" is not a film for everyone. It's very graphic and it's for sure going to be triggering and upsetting for many to watch.

The opening line sums up the film perfectly:

"Are you here for business... or for pleasure?"

6/10

Comments

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