From the reviews I've read so far, critics have been beating this take on the adult entertainment business into the ground.
from www.monstersandcritics.com - Emerging filmmaker Julie Davis has come up with a funny and outrageous romantic comedy that has an edge to it.
The edge is the adult video business. Also known as pornography, the secret is that a lot of young, unemployed, future film cast and crewmembers work in porn. They work in porn because, guess what, it pays.
In fact, it pays pretty well if one works for the right people. Most people who do it don’t do it for long because it is disgusting. The fact that this film glosses over the disgusting parts even while showing them on screen must be forgiven. At least it is being brought out in the open.
This film is a romantic comedy, not a tragedy, so everything works out OK in the end. The porn stars don’t become crack addicts and die in sleazy dives, their hearts broken. Quite the contrary, the emerging director is able to enjoy her success in the limelight while earning the respect of her bourgeoisie parents. Even better, her altruistic never-say-die attitude rubs off on her future significant other and even the porn star cast who never thought they had it in them.
Well, they knew they had it in them all the time, they had just forgotten.
Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor Leelee Sobieski plays Jody Balaban the college award winning film major who can’t get a job. Walking off the lot, that is, the parking lot, where she directs traffic, Jody is thrilled to find an acceptance letter stashed in the hundreds of rejections on her table. The acceptance letter appreciates her point of view, “the point of view of a female,” and invites her to join the studio as a producer. Things are looking up as Jodi bounces into the studio only to find that the films produced by Grind Productions usually develop the woman’s point of view when she is on her back, looking up.
Shocked at first, Jodi reviews her bank account and considers moving in with her parents before realizing she has absolutely no choice. Her parent are thrilled when they find out she has a film making job. Her prestige in the family is restored and Jody submerges her actual profession deep in hiding. As her parents circle in the background, Jody schemes to make her own film at night, using the studio in secret. She sneaks in and out; working 20-hour days while putting beans on her plate and making her dream come true at the same time.
In the midst of this she meets fellow college film making star Jeff Drake, now a senior producer at Grind. Jeff Drake is played by Matthew Davis
(“Legally Blond”). Jeff starts as a sort of big brother and eventually becomes, well, you know.
This is a remarkably fresh and daring indie production with first-rate work by writer director Davis and leads Sobieski and Davis. The supporting cast is good, as is the sound track. The film combines sincere and honest performances while spotlighting the porn industry as an enemy who, in fact, may be us. Kristen Johnston plays Irene Fox, the porn studio owner with class and style. She neither over-plays the part of Irene as a slutty, jaded exploiter of youngsters nor underplays her as a dummy. The brain of the porn company is portrayed as somebody who is just trying to make payroll and retire like everybody else. An over-simplification? You be the judge.
As far as the supporting cast goes, the trophy may well go to Jamie Kennedy playing dimwitted porn star Richard 'Dick' Harder. By consistently not getting it, the Harder character may actually be writer Davis’ take on the consumers of porn. They live the most ridiculous sex fantasies in the world, day in and day out, and are never fully engaged in the reality of their actions. In the end, it is all show business to them, producers and consumers alike. Except for the few people who see it as a means to an end; a different end entirely.
