The porn industry is first and foremost just that: an industry. Pleasure, the stunning expansion of Swedish writer-director Ninja Thyberg’s 2013 short of the same name, takes an unfiltered and decidedly hardcore look at how the porn industry operates through the lens of newcomer “Bella Cherry” (an incredible Sofia Kappel). A Swedish transplant that just arrived in LA with her mind set on being the next big thing in porn, Bella declares at passport control that she’s in the States for pleasure but soon discovers that she’s there for business. And business can be a sticky situation. 

Working from a script from Thyberg and co-writer Peter Modestij, Pleasure feels spiritually entwined with Magic Mike in that it’s essentially a workplace drama with an unusual setting: porn sets. Thyberg takes viewers deep into the jungle of LA’s porn scene, illuminating the not-so-sexy behind-the-scenes tricks of the trade that performers use to keep themselves oily, hard, and pounding away, and the money continuing to roll in. As Bella navigates the industry, new friends, professional adversaries, and the social currency ladder, she rubs against the deeply-entrenched power structures of the business and its wavering professionalism.

While some film sets reflect a deeply-held respect for the sanctity of consent (and usually are led and worked by other women), others embody a patriarchal system defined by control, manipulation, and masochism, all of which draws into question the idea of consent in pornography and asks us to examine the prism through which we see performative pleasure and pain.

LA is depicted as a feeding grounds where young, bright-eyed talent like Bella willing to “S and F” their way to the top are given their two weeks in the spotlight and dumped like garbage. Run through by a committee of grody old men who want to take advantage of their innocence and ignorance. To quote Matthew McCoughahey’s David Wooderson, “I get older, they stay the same age.” Every girl approach with that attitude and belief that “they’re different” and as Bella begins to climb the ladder of popularity, she sacrifices pieces of herself (quite literally and figuratively) in order to achieve just that.  

There’s no amount of praise that can be heaped at Kappel’s feet that would account for just how fantastic and brave she is in the pole position. Her captivating performance is exposed in a way that few actresses can achieve, Kappel turning Bella into a complex and sympathetic character, whose flaws and brokenness only serve to make her a more complete and well-rounded character. Flanked by a supporting cast of actual industry insiders like Kendra Spade, Chris Cock, Dana DeArmond, Evelyn Claire, Mark Spiegler, and Casey Calvert, Pleasure boasts authenticity and inner-sanctum secrets that give the narrative teeth and helps shape the film’s unwavering moral center: one that is openly critical of the industry while also trying to hold it to some kind of higher standard.

By teasing out and really drawing into focus the specificity of the hazards and highlights of the industry, Pleasure adopts a non-judgmental but wholly naked point of view that allows viewers to explore their own relationship with sexualized content in a way that will undoubted make all who watch view porn and its performers in a different light. Degradation and empowerment co-exist within the industry and sometimes the line becomes blurred to the point of erasure, something that Bella experiences as she continues to push her own boundaries, experimenting with BDSM, humiliation, and the industry pièce de résistance: the double-anal.

Any movie that builds up to a double-anal climax is sure to raise some eyebrows and Pleasure leans into the extremely explicit nature of its story in borderline-pornographic fashion. Have no doubts, Thyberg’s creation will be sure to leave a wide swath of audiences offended to no end. Rather than try to censor and sideline the hardcore sex at the center of the story, Pleasure remains unafraid to strip down and revel in the revolving smorgasbord of human flesh and the price-per-pound nature of how that market operates. The nudity and simulated sexual acts are enough to make a pervert blush but they allow the story to dig in deeper to further crevices and explore sexual consent, trauma, and empowerment in ways that otherwise could not be accomplished. 

Sadly, the extreme sexual content is gratuitous in ways that will make Pleasure nearly impossible to distribute domestically: the list of edits it would have to undergo to make its way too theaters is unimaginable; and I don’t even see a more adult-oriented streaming service like HBO Max wanting to risk this movie getting in front of the wrong eyes. If Pleasure remains one of those films that plays the festival and fades into complete obscurity, it will be a damn shame since it truly is one of the most entertaining, thought-provoking, and risky/risqué films I’ve seen in quite some time and should be required viewing for anyone who watches porn.

CONCLUSION: A stunningly provocative exploration of the peaks and valleys of the porn industry led by a wowing performance from newcomer Sofia Kappel, ‘Pleasure’ uses gratuitous sex to speak to structures of power and consent while telling the story of one girl’s thirst for pornstar fame.

A

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