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Cecil Terwilliger · 02-26-2023, 12:53 PM

Pleasure (on Crave) was…intriguing. Honestly it was hard to tell if it was good or not. Much of it is so explicit that it comes off as brutally realistic but sometimes I find people confuse shocking for earnest. It seems to give an honest take on the difficulties young women face in the porn industry but it also seemed to at times stray too close to the type of exploitive media it purports to expose. At times it felt like gritty Showgirls, which is obviously not a compliment. Other times it felt like it was heavily influenced by the Netflix doc Hot Girls Wanted, which made it feel incredibly true to life.

Ultimately I enjoyed it but it never quite got me to believe that it was as earnest and gritty as it wanted me to think it was, despite so much graphic sexual imagery. I can’t help but think it wanted to emulate the style of a movie like The Florida Project, which despite the vastly different subject matter, truly made me feel like I was watching a realistic depiction of the life of a troubled young woman and her daughter. The characters felt so raw. Instead this had a level of polish and style that made it seem like it wanted to come across as equal parts sexy and depressing. Although this might have been intentional because it certainly didn’t strike me as purely anti porn so portraying it as sexy could be purposeful to contrast the pleasure it brings with the dark side of the industry.

What it did do really well is portray porn as an industry full of willing participants with a wide range of people who, like many other “influencer” types, rely on selling an image of themselves to the public. It also did well to avoid the porn cliche of everyone has daddy issues and are coke addicts with all men being dirty rapists. Like any industry with desperate performers and wide power disparity, it made it clear that there are no shortage of good and bad people with lots of grey.

Overall I’d give it a recommend. Given how graphic some of the scenes are though, I can’t imagine it’ll have anything but a niche audience.

02-26-2023, 12:53 PM	#5852
Cecil Terwilliger That Crazy Guy at the Bus Stop Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Springfield Penitentiary Exp:	Pleasure (on Crave) was…intriguing. Honestly it was hard to tell if it was good or not. Much of it is so explicit that it comes off as brutally realistic but sometimes I find people confuse shocking for earnest. It seems to give an honest take on the difficulties young women face in the porn industry but it also seemed to at times stray too close to the type of exploitive media it purports to expose. At times it felt like gritty Showgirls, which is obviously not a compliment. Other times it felt like it was heavily influenced by the Netflix doc Hot Girls Wanted, which made it feel incredibly true to life. Ultimately I enjoyed it but it never quite got me to believe that it was as earnest and gritty as it wanted me to think it was, despite so much graphic sexual imagery. I can’t help but think it wanted to emulate the style of a movie like The Florida Project, which despite the vastly different subject matter, truly made me feel like I was watching a realistic depiction of the life of a troubled young woman and her daughter. The characters felt so raw. Instead this had a level of polish and style that made it seem like it wanted to come across as equal parts sexy and depressing. Although this might have been intentional because it certainly didn’t strike me as purely anti porn so portraying it as sexy could be purposeful to contrast the pleasure it brings with the dark side of the industry. What it did do really well is portray porn as an industry full of willing participants with a wide range of people who, like many other “influencer” types, rely on selling an image of themselves to the public. It also did well to avoid the porn cliche of everyone has daddy issues and are coke addicts with all men being dirty rapists. Like any industry with desperate performers and wide power disparity, it made it clear that there are no shortage of good and bad people with lots of grey. Overall I’d give it a recommend. Given how graphic some of the scenes are though, I can’t imagine it’ll have anything but a niche audience. Last edited by Cecil Terwilliger; 02-26-2023 at 12:57 PM.