Like any Hollywood hopeful, the heroine of “Pleasure” dreams big: she wants to become a star. It gets tough, even when she looks with blond hair and blue eyes that flicker between calculation and just enough vacancy to please male power. She already has the – it’s the love of the camera – but many beautiful people do that too, and they too are burning with desire. They will do everything they can to make it, although maybe not exactly everything she does.
Reader, she wants to be a porn star.
That story and her desire are undoubtedly not for everyone. But if you’re curious about what a feminist view of this world looks like, “Pleasure” might surprise you as much as I did. It’s a smart, daring, wholly unexpected film that, in the middle, is an old-fashioned tale of an ambitious fighter who overcomes the odds of becoming another American success story. It’s also one of the most explicit films to have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival (in 2021) and, after being slammed by Neon (the company that released “Parasite”), will be playing in art houses across the country. , from Boston to Oklahoma City.
However, what makes “Pleasure” most provocative — worthy of serious consideration and discussion, not the usual outrage or blasé shrug — is that it’s a complex, balanced take on the mainstream porn industry. As a business, pornography rejoices because it leaves nothing to the imagination except the behind-the-scenes operations, the ugliness, and most importantly, the money—billions of dollars worth of annual revenue in the United States alone. And while Swedish director Ninja Thyberg doesn’t screw up the numbers in ‘Pleasure’, she rightly sheds a sharp light on the political economy of mainstream filth, including production methods.
The story revolves around Bella Cherry (psst, it’s not her real name), who is more than ready for her close-up. Recently arriving from Sweden, Bella – played by the amazing Sofia Kappel – hasn’t quite mapped out her path to success. She’s just getting started, but she’s entrepreneurial and already feeding her Instagram account with a stream of selfies. She has vague plans, a car, a cop and a co-living setup near her job, also known as the San Fernando Valley, the epicenter of the industry. What she needs now is experience and perhaps a signature specialty that will set her apart, polish her reputation and make her name.
