Unlimitedia
Sick Product of a Sick System
Lucybespro
It is a performances centric movie
Matrixiole
Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
ThedevilChoose
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
PoppyTransfusion
First of all, this is a beautiful film to watch. The black and white photography is sharp enough to carve out details in the skin of the actresses who all play a single sex worker called 'Angie'. At important moments the black and white is soft and casts shadows. It is erotic as Angie is never coloured in and slightly elusive in her shadows. A screen for projection yet the black and white illuminates her fleshiness.The plot is straightforward but the content is not. 8 different actresses speak of their experiences of sex, using the 'f' word that IMDb will beep out were it to be written here, in front of a male director who can be heard but not seen - aside from the odd shot of the set and crew. The conversation begins as an interrogation from the director to Angie. She rejects this quite quickly and becomes provocative and challenging; taking control of the interview. Angie gets the director to strip naked and masturbate.After this point the conversation relaxes into a nice to and fro that sees Angie soften and both she and the director share confidences. The film culminates, aptly, with Angie masturbating to orgasm. This ending fitted the conversation but I was not satisfied. Some important boundary seemed to have disintegrated for me.I found watching and listening to the different actresses compelling. I found what they had to say witty and at times, very illuminating. My favourites were Angie 4 and 5, I think; an older blonde woman who sported a black mac and an Asiatic woman wearing a satin night gown. Their dialogue was the most interesting as they discussed fantasy and reality and then what sex is for women and the role pain has to play. I was riveted and felt I was learning something about my own sexuality. This is one of the gifts of film.
saumikg
For most of the movie I was totally into it. That is till the moment I realized the interviews were not real (but a scripted one, its a film-not a documentary; silly me). It felt like a bucket of cold water being poured over my head. But till the realization dawned, it came across as a pretty overwhelming series of talks with the sex-workers, too bad it was not real. If the interviews were not make-believe, it would have been quite a piece of work. Since I watched this without any prior information about the project, I watched through 90% of the movie believing it to be a documentary & I was deeply moved by it. That is until the last segment where the script suddenly stops making sense, and all the built up quickly evaporates. Hence the 5 of 10 rating.
cB391
This movies does what it intends to do. "Angie is determined to set the record straight about sex" is in the storyline, and she (in the plural sense) does. Multiple versions of Angie allow for a wider look at the similarities within sex workers, though only can be connected to those who freely enter the trade, do not face violence, police corruption etc.The film is written and directed by John Winter who wants the male viewer to see the film as more than simply sexual, but it is hard to do so. The male gaze is amplified with Matthew Holmes (the interviewer), who essentially explores his own prior relationships through relating to various prostitutes.Overall, the film doesn't explore more than a simplistic look between money, sex and emotions. It tries to explicitly imply the power that sex has on people, and the reversal of roles in the film helps to dictate this well. There are a few character developing moments in the movie, but overall it does not "set the record straight on sex". In a way it tries to universalize emotion by having the multiple Angie's, and generalizes all males in the same way.The emotional connection with the audience is built through a physical one, rather than anything else, as vulnerability is seen throughout the film, but is not explained as anything outside of the physical, with little importance paid to power and dominance.I would rate this film a 5/10 while the ratings might range from 3-8 depending on personal tastes. The film doesn't seem to have much of a budget, and didn't need it. The transitions were good and provided the meaning intended. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, and that might explain the low feedback for this movie. It is dealing with a taboo subject, but it deals with it superficially, and therefore there is but a few statements that can be taken away (if you have no knowledge on the subject), but otherwise it isn't worth watching.
to_see_you_smile_again
What is wrong with Australian cinema-goers? This is an amazing example of our talented industry: The script, the cinematography and the actresses all blew me away. The director has made a bold statement regarding censorship, about what we can see and hear and why that is. After watching this movie last night, I'm still thinking about it the next morning, and will continue to do so for many days - now that is a sign of a good film. If you've missed it at the movies, wait until it's on DVD and buy it. We need to support our struggling film industry. We need to get behind talented directors and actresses like these, and we need to make more intellectual movies like these.
