The Sex Addict (2017)

I have to hand it to Amir Mo, the man who directed, wrote, and starred in this movie. Despite the many movies I watch every week, month, and year, there are very few that get the lowest possible rating. Most movies have something to save them from the very bottom of the barrel, be it a performance, one or two good scenes, or even just a good idea that isn't explored as well as it could have been. Not in this case though, oh no. The Sex Addict is one of the worst films I have ever seen. It's often painfully unfunny (not being hyperbolic here, one or two of these "jokes" made me roll my eyes so much that I started to get a dull ache behind them), it's impossible to care about any of the characters, and all of the blame can be shouldered by Mo.

What's it about? A young woman named Suzanna (Valerie Tosi) decides to record interviews and events with a sex addict (Rex, played by Mo) for her PhD dissertation. This also leads to her meeting Trudy (Danielle Gross), a prostitute who is a friend to Rex and won't sleep with him, and young Theodore (Caleb Thomas), a high school student roped into being an intern. And hilarity ensues. Well, hilarity would ensue if you stopped watching the movie and found something funnier. I could suggest 1000 alternatives but right now I just have to make it through to the end of this review.

There are two things obvious from the start of this movie. First, Mo has a few friends that he was able to rope into making cameo appearances (they may not be a-list names but I recognised a couple of them). Second, Mo thinks that the main idea, and his script, is hilarious. He would have to fling himself into the deepest pocket of some alternate universe to be more wrong about that second point.

Even for what should be viewed as a light comedy, this struggles to get the basics right. It's set up as a document being recorded by the cameraman who is accompanying Suzanna. Until it switches to a film being shot by someone else. And there are also a few shots from the POV of, well, a standard camera position. Rex is the main character, and it's his journey we are watching. Until it's not. In fact, he becomes the least important figure in the second half of the movie. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just adds to the feel of this all being a bit lacking in focus and ultimately pointless. The whole thing is one joke that Mo clearly finds funny, capped with a punchline that doesn't feel amusing for viewers, it just feels like a lazy middle finger from someone who couldn't be bothered to come up with a proper ending.

Some of the performances are bearable. Gross and Thomas do better than Mo and Tosi, and the interview segments with Mary Carey are okay. That's all I can think of to say, in an attempt to end this review on a note that doesn't feel too sour. But this is an awful, awful film and if you watch it then don't say that I didn't warn you. Because I have just warned you.

1/10

Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look At An X Rated Industry (2009)

Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look At An X Rated Industry is a slightly deceiving title for this documentary. It's correct, in some ways, but the focus isn't so much on the industry itself as it is on Michael Grecco's attempt to make a glossy, coffee table book of photography that shows many elements of that industry in a different light.

Grecco also directed this piece and the whole thing feels very much like an art installation on film. Which is, essentially, what it is. Yet in casting his eye over everything and showing it through his camera lens he removes something from it. Everything is put under intense bright lights, posed to show things off from the best possible angles and even sometimes made to look completely different from how it normally looks. Which is all well and good when it comes to what Grecco is setting out to do. He achieves his aims and well done to him for that, but he ends up showing viewers a lot of stuff that doesn't feel as if it even belongs in the world of porn.

Set during the AVN Awards and Convention (which is like the Oscars for the adult entertainment industry), Grecco focuses on a couple of stars - namely, Joanna Angel and Sunny Lane - who have happily decided to give him a fair bit of their time. He tries to follow their story as they discuss how they got started in the business and what they hope to get from it. Those moments are fine, they may not be the most revelatory discussions, but they serve as a reminder of how the people engaged in various sex acts for entertainment are very real and have very real ambitions. It's when Grecco looks elsewhere, when he tries to cover the broad and interesting spectrum of fans and stars at the AVN, that things start to become less interesting.

If you learn one thing coming away from this documentary, which IS diverting and enjoyable enough here and there, it's not anything about the world of porn. Nope. This documentary will remind you of how important context is because that's what is missing. Women who act in porn being shown photographed while posing in a sexy manner are just attractive women being photographed while posing in a sexy manner. Sex toys set on blank white backgrounds to look like strange pieces of sculpture are just strange pieces of sculpture. I could go on, but I'm sure you get the picture.

There ARE a number of scenes with Grecco finding out, and allowing the viewer to find out, a little bit about the unique subject he has decided to photograph. Sadly, there aren't enough of them. The documentary becomes more watchable whenever Sunny Lane or Joanna Angel appears (no, not for the obvious reasons so stop that childish sniggering now), but they're not onscreen enough to make the whole experience feel like more than a flick through an art book that only has one or two pages to make you stop and really take it in. That's all it is. Which, ironically, is probably an end result that Grecco is very pleased with.

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Ambition-Rated-Look-Industry/dp/B0037EDIF0/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1363038219&sr=8-9&keywords=naked+ambition

After Porn Ends (2010)

This documentary, directed by Bryce Wagoner, interviews a number of ex-porn stars and tries to show both positive and negative aspects of working in the adult entertainment industry. It is an industry that has often been looked down upon, and has become harder and harder (no pun intended) over the years with the rise of the internet and the many sites now hosting content for small fees, or even free. Do the people interviewed here look like they have had their souls blackened, their beauty worn out and their goodness all screwed away (not my attitude, but one I'm sure many critics of porn would quickly take up)? Of course not. Well, not all of them.

The people onscreen here are, as in any profession, a real mix. Yes, some of them look as if they'll never shake off that air of regret (such as Crissy Moran, a young woman who couldn't be further removed from the image that she once projected in films), but some seem to have survived in quite good shape. It's perhaps not unsurprising to see that the male stars of the industry have fewer regrets (Richard Pacheco comes across as especially well-balanced, but John Leslie, who died of a heart attack before the film was released, and Randy West seem happy enough), but there are moments with almost everyone being interviewed in which pain flits briefly across their face.

People get into the porn business for a number of reasons and, as mentioned here, many people get into the porn business for all the wrong reasons. There are people who have had tough times and want some fast cash, there are people who seem to take no small amount of joy from the attention that it gives them and there are a few people who are completely comfortable with it and view their career in porn as a means to an end. Asia Carrera is one of the latter people, but personal tragedy in her life meant that she didn't really get the future that she had envisioned for herself. Nina Hartley, William Margold and others give their own opinions on what the industry can do to people and just what qualities are needed by those who want to make it work for them. They make a number of sensible points, but stories from people like Houston, Shelley Lubben and Raylene prove just how many folk have gone into the industry with either an incredible air of naivete or no small amount of willful ignorance. And I am sure that it will keep happening, even as the job and the physical demands keep getting tougher and tougher.

Aside from those already mentioned, stars featured here include Amber Lynn, Mary Carey, Sandra Margot and Seka, as well as many others, so the documentary works as both a look at the toll a life in porn can take on someone and also a celebration of its more enduring stars. It may make for uncomfortable viewing at times, but the aim of the thing, in my view anyway, isn't to make viewers of porn feel guilty and ashamed. It's to show that the people behind the orgasmic groans and lustful moans are people who deserve a bit of gratitude for their hard work as opposed to the stigma that gets attached to them and the hypocritical reprimands from people, many of them viewers of the very material that they then go on to loudly protest.

While After Porn Ends seems to show all of the subjects onscreen without comment, people will undoubtedly take away from it what they want to. Personally, I think that porn is okay in moderation. I'm not going to pretend to be on some moral high horse as I end this review, I've seen porn and my teenage years were often little more than a series of obstacles on my way to seeing women in states of undress. There's no denying that it can be incredibly damaging, both for the stars of the industry and for viewers who get addicted to viewing sexual acts rather than actual participating in a healthy sex life, but the same can be said of many professions and many things that are now part of our modern lives. What happens After Porn Ends is, ultimately, up to each and every single one of us. Just like any other set of attitudes.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/After-Porn-Ends-Mary-Carey/dp/B008I5CURU/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1362788685&sr=1-2&keywords=after+porn+ends

If you enjoyed this review then you may well enjoy ALL of the reviews in my book of collated movie reviews. And it's really not that expensive, although it enriches my soul. Honest.

The UK version can be bought here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1395945647&sr=1-3&keywords=movie+guide

And American folks can buy it here - http://www.amazon.com/TJs-Ramshackle-Movie-Guide-Reviews-ebook/dp/B00J9PLT6Q/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395945752&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=TJs+ramshackle+mov

As much as I love the rest of the world, I can't keep up with all of the different links in different territories, but trust me when I say that it should be there on your local Amazon.