Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

twink-2 If you like escapist cinema, then "The Pornographer" is not for you. This film probes, with painful honesty, the depths of one man's isolation. It contains far less sexual content than one would expect from the title alone.Its message is neither pro-pornography nor anti-pornography; rather, porn serves as a metaphor for any type of artificially constructed pleasure that is more illusory than real. By showing that no lasting fulfillment can be found in the material world alone, director Doug Atchison defies the industry in which he works. It's a wonder this film ever got made.

a10tive I felt a little self-conscious sitting down to a movie with this title, and was pleasantly surprised by the nature of the story. It's a more compelling character piece than I had expected. While some of the main character's actions push the limits of believability, I found the story to be entirely engaging. The main character is at times (many times) pathetic, and wonderfully portrayed by the lead actor (although I'm too lazy to go look up his name on the box).The look of the picture is really what pulled me in -- right from the first shots. Moody and creepy and silky, and I felt like I was right there in that strip club. Kudos to the visual sense of the cinematographer and director.Overall, a thought provoking, unsettling, and good to look at movie.

Kastore I first checked out "The Pornographer" because it starred my favorite B-movie actress, Monique Parent. First, I was surprised to see that Craig Wasson was also in it. Then, I was surprised to see that the acting all around was quite good. Finally, I was further surprised that this movie was actually very dark, serious, and thought-provoking, and wondered why it was I had never heard about it before.Michael DeGood is quite good as the socially weak, sniveling protagonist Paul whose characteristics as such help explain his terrible luck with women. Craig Wasson turns in his best performance in years as Spano, the suave, cold and calculating porn producer. Newcomer Katheryn Cain is extra sweet and innocent, I hopefully look forward to seeing her in more movies in the near future. And of course, Monique Parent is beautiful as always and terrific in her role as the temptress pornstar turned renegade producer. I like seeing Parent in film festival-type stuff, and I hope to see her in more movies like "The Pornographer" (she's actually done several such films, though only a few have been picked up for distribution).Most of the first act is devoted to analyis of the central character, as we see Paul trying to procur a date, failing everytime, and eventually asking out the hooker whom he regularly employs the services of. The sequence of him accidentally asking out a 15y/o girl is particularly gripping, as we are not sure if he realizes the girl's age, or actually has pedophilic tendencies (or, perhaps we are witnessing the unintended origins of such tendencies). Another scene that stands out for me is when he visits the private booth and talks via phone to the stripper behind the glass. I couldn't help but be reminded of the scene in "Taxi Driver" when Travis tries to get Betsy to go on another date with him, but similarly gets turned down.So Paul, feeling utterly hopeless and dull in life, tries his hand at the subject he is most familiar with: pornography. He turns out to be somewhat of a natural at it, and is immediately taken under the wing of Spano (Wasson), who offers to give Paul the opportunity to make some 'real' videos (i.e. - with actors, not hookers). If, however, Paul can find a 'pure girl'. A chance accident leads Paul to meet such a girl - Kate (Cain). But Paul fails at getting close to her, of course, and instead of meeting Spano's challenge, Paul opts for the quicker, easier route of making lesser quality videos for Charise (Parent). However, she soon turns out to be simply using Paul for her own personal gain, and so he finds himself back to Spano and his challenge to Paul. Ultimately, we come to the best scene of the movie - Paul's on-camera seduction of Kate. This scene is done with such intensity and a sinister sense of innocence being lost that you can't help but hope Paul turns his life around to develop his relationship with Kate rather than ruthlessly use her as his ticket to success.With just this one film, writer/director Doug Atchison has proven himself more talented than so many other independent directors who are mass-worshiped after only doing one picture. His strength is definitely in his writing, as he presents us with a fully-dimensional main character that we simultaneously feel pity for and disgust towards. I believe Atchison does justice to portraying today's porn industry in all its cold reality, where people are exploited and in turn exploit others, and those who can't handle it (i.e. - the heroin-addicted fallen starlet) are literally left on the curb. Also, for a movie about pornography, there is little nudity - a sign of a skilled filmmaker. Atchison was probably hindered by a limited budget in showing off very much directing-wise here. However, the almost Cassavetes-like documentary style works for this particular movie. He shows shades of influence from Scorsese as well.The only major flaw I had with this movie was the somewhat slapstick ending, although it still serves to transmit the message of individuals getting forced into a dead-end situation - in this case, the porn industry. The final shot is truly haunting though, and quickly makes you overlook the slightly contrived ending. Besides, I can name over a dozen other great and heralded independent films with utterly ridiculous attempts at a brilliant and all-satisfying finale. "The Pornographer" is just about as good as they come, and I hope to see more projects by Atchison in the future. 9/10.

robert-747 I just rented this movie because of the title and the summary on the back cover of the box. I usually rent indies or others that I have never seen and become bored within 20 minutes. I was impressed by the many qualities this film had. The acting was on point, the camera moved well, straight up and the story was pretty tight. It's a strange film, the plot, the" why?"someone would make it and I just can't figure it out but it's really good and the way I know that is because I was glued. DeGood was the perfect Paul, so creepy and off tint, I wonder if he really is like that. Good performances all around. I can imagine that one wasn't easy to finance, lots of credit cards used there. But it done good. Good Work. Director, DP, Cast ...etc.