Pleasure (2021)
Country: SV/NL/FR
Technical: col 109m
Director: Ninja Thyberg
Cast: Sofia Kappel, Zelda Morrison, Evelyn Claire, Chris Cock, Dana DeArmond
Synopsis:
An emancipated Swedish girl travels to Los Angeles to become a porn star, but finds the industry backbiting and ritual abasement are too much even for her strong stomach.
Review:
Not above the heavy irony of a go-getting, self-determined woman getting shafted by the adult film industry, Thyberg's film is like Todd Solondz crossed with Ken Russell. The central performance is both mesmerising and remarkably courageous; even though the director shies away from any shock inserts à la Von Trier, and uses slow motion and carefully composed close-ups to hit her subjective markers, this makes for a pretty unremitting wallow in the seamy realities of the world's most lucrative entertainment business. A perceptive polemic, it digs deep into the psyche of its lead character, exposing the cracks in the glossy veneer of the world she means to exploit, but leaves us hanging via a peremptory finish.
Country: SV/NL/FR
Technical: col 109m
Director: Ninja Thyberg
Cast: Sofia Kappel, Zelda Morrison, Evelyn Claire, Chris Cock, Dana DeArmond
Synopsis:
An emancipated Swedish girl travels to Los Angeles to become a porn star, but finds the industry backbiting and ritual abasement are too much even for her strong stomach.
Review:
Not above the heavy irony of a go-getting, self-determined woman getting shafted by the adult film industry, Thyberg's film is like Todd Solondz crossed with Ken Russell. The central performance is both mesmerising and remarkably courageous; even though the director shies away from any shock inserts à la Von Trier, and uses slow motion and carefully composed close-ups to hit her subjective markers, this makes for a pretty unremitting wallow in the seamy realities of the world's most lucrative entertainment business. A perceptive polemic, it digs deep into the psyche of its lead character, exposing the cracks in the glossy veneer of the world she means to exploit, but leaves us hanging via a peremptory finish.
Country: SV/NL/FR
Technical: col 109m
Director: Ninja Thyberg
Cast: Sofia Kappel, Zelda Morrison, Evelyn Claire, Chris Cock, Dana DeArmond
Synopsis:
An emancipated Swedish girl travels to Los Angeles to become a porn star, but finds the industry backbiting and ritual abasement are too much even for her strong stomach.
Review:
Not above the heavy irony of a go-getting, self-determined woman getting shafted by the adult film industry, Thyberg's film is like Todd Solondz crossed with Ken Russell. The central performance is both mesmerising and remarkably courageous; even though the director shies away from any shock inserts à la Von Trier, and uses slow motion and carefully composed close-ups to hit her subjective markers, this makes for a pretty unremitting wallow in the seamy realities of the world's most lucrative entertainment business. A perceptive polemic, it digs deep into the psyche of its lead character, exposing the cracks in the glossy veneer of the world she means to exploit, but leaves us hanging via a peremptory finish.