Directed by Ninja Thyberg, Pleasure takes us to the LA porn industry from a female perspective.
Most reviews of Ninja Thybergs debut feature Pleasure start off by stating that her film about women in the porn industry, though very explicit – is certailnly not erotic. Almost as if the reviewers are trying to distance themselves from the sexual element. As long as the movie is not erotic, it can be considered and assessed.
In Pleasure, Thyberg cleverly builds her story of the newcomer to the porn industry around familiar rags-to-riches tropes. She casts most porn industry workers as themselves and leaves the lead role – Bella Cherry – to a 22-year-old novice Sofia Kappel. Kappel often plays Bella as aloof and guarded. And soon to be way out of her depth.
Pleasure begins tame enough. Bella moves to Los Angeles to begin her career as an adult actress. She soon signs a filming contract and is delighted to have done her first blowjob scene which she promptly shares on Instagram. She has a good friend in Joy (Zelda Morrison) who helps her with her Instagram feed and tutors her on winning photoshoot poses. These are the scenes that continuously try to reiterate Bella’s comfort and excitement to be in the porn industry. She can’t be traumatized if she’s laughing and posting on Instagram, can she?
In fact, trauma is expressly dismissed. When Bella’s producer asks her why she decided to get into the industry, Bella tells a story of an abusive father and then quickly bursts out laughing. Bella likes what she does. She doesn’t need a traumatic past to want to work in porn. And in an ideal world, she doesn’t. In an ideal world, female sexuality is neither cause for concern nor contempt. But ours is far from an ideal world and the porn industry is even further from it. Thyberg’s lack of comment on the realities of the porn industry is what’s audibly missing from the film.
Thyberg prefers to focus on the ambition and sacrifice that pave the road to success. These are personified in Ava (Evelyn Claire) – a Spiegler girl. The most famous, most glamorous and best-paid worker in the industry. The only luxury Ava doesn’t have is the power to say ‘no’ to a project. No matter how dangerous or degrading it might be. Enamored and envious, Bella decides she wants the same limelight.
But in order to achieve it, Bella must loosen her boundaries of consent and accept more hardcore scenes. It is when Bella puts herself at more and more risk and more and more humiliation for the sake of her CV where Pleasure begins to fall apart. Partly because there is no respectful way to portray sexual abuse and partly because Thyberg remains impartial and distant.
By the end, Bella works her way to the top tier of the industry. But when she is put in a position of power (by way of a strap-on) she follows the same abusive patterns that were previously employed over her. Thus in a way, Pleasure promises a look on sex and porn from a female perspective and place of agency only to prove that in a patriarchal business, women do have a choice. But the choice is to go with the norm or get the hell out.
