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  • 13 Movies About the World’s Oldest Profession That Don’t Sugarcoat Anything

    13 Movies About the World’s Oldest Profession That Don’t Sugarcoat Anything


    Pretty Woman is among the many movies about the world’s oldest profession that make it seem kind of glamorous. These movies don’t.

    Klute (1971)

    Warner Bros.

    The first film in Alan J. Pakula’s Paranoia Trilogy — which also includes The Parallex View and All the President’s Men — this dark thriller stars Jane Fonda as Bree Daniels, who believes she’s being stalked by a deadly john. She works with a detective played by Donald Sutherland who of course thinks he can save her, in every sense.

    Fonda (above) won her first Best Actress Oscar for playing Daniels, a complex character who initially seems to enjoy her job — except for the part of being stalked, of course.

    Midnight Cowboy (1969)

    Credit: C/O

    The first and only film with an X rating ever to win Best Picture, Midnight Cowboy tells the seedy story of Joe Buck, a Texas boy who moves to the big city and dresses up as a cowboy to sell his wares. He falls under the shaky wing of Rico “Ratso” Rizzo, played by Dustin Hoffman, who gets to deliver the often-imitated line “I’m walkin’ here!”

    Directed by John Schlesinger and written by Waldo Salt, the film is notable for its empathetic portrayal — especially by 1960s standards — of low-level street hustlers, and its willingness to just spend time with its characters without judgement or false moralizing.

    There’s a long story behind the film’s rating, which was later changed to an R.

    Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

    Credit: C/O

    At first, it seems like Mike Figgis’ drama is going to go along with the heart-of-gold trope as Elisabeth Shue’s Las Vegas sex worker, Sera (above), tries to save Hollywood washout Ben (Nicolas Cage) from his plan to drink himself to death. But then things get darker and darker, especially in a horrific scene in which Sera takes on multiple awful young clients.

    Leaving Las Vegas is a sad, sad movie, but Shue imbues Sera with dignity and supreme likability throughout, even as her plans collapse — and she still holds onto her dreams.

    Cage won a Best Actor Oscar, and Shue was nominated for Best Actress but lost to Susan Sarandon for her role in Dead Man Walking. Sarandon is great but Shue absolutely deserved to win for a harrowing, tough performance in one of the most bluntly sad movies about the oldest profession.

    Monster (2003)

    Credit: C/O

    Charlize Theron played hard against type as she de-glammed for this searing, uncompromising Patty Jenkins film inspired by the story of real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos.

    Suggesting that Wuornos first descended into murder out of desperation, mental illness and self-defense, Monster makes you kind of sympathize with a serial killer — until you definitely don’t. Wuornos’ claims of self defense soon turn into empty justifications.

    Theron deservedly won a Best Actress Oscar for the role.

    Taxi Driver (1976)

    Credit: C/O

    The young Jodie Foster is heartbreaking as a child so caught up in street life that she doesn’t comprehend how horribly she’s being exploited by the smooth-talking Sport (Harvey Keitel) in this masterful collaboration between director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader.

    With Mean Streets, Taxi Driver is one of the best and most-imitated time capsules of 1970s New York City grime, and it’s a testament to the film’s narrative virtuosity that by the end we’re rooting hard for obvious psychopath Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) to do what needs to be done.

    De Niro and Foster were both nominated for Oscars in this, one of the most enduring and harrowing movies about sex trafficking.

    My Own Private Idaho (1991)

    Credit: C/O

    A highlight of 1990s indie filmmaking, this Gus Van Sant drama follows narcoleptic hustler Mike (River Phoenix in one of the best roles of his too-short life) in a journey from Portland to Idaho to Rome with fellow hustler Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves).

    The film is a very loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, and Reeves believed in Van Sant’s script so much that he rode over 1,300 miles by motorcycle to convince Phoenix to make the movie with him. Its one of the most even-handed movies about sex work to focus on men.

    Requiem for a Dream (2000)

    Credit: C/O

    If you want to convince people not to do heroin, show them Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky’s brilliant but painful adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr.’s novel about people who turn to drugs to escape reality — and end up in a much worse place than they started.

    Things turn out especially horribly for Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly, above), whose despair culminates in a party scene you’ll wish you could forget.

    Sin City (2005)

    Credit: C/O

    This early mostly black-and-white masterpiece, directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller based on Miller’s graphic novels, does nothing to minimize the struggles of the hardworking women of Old Town.

    But it also stresses that pretty much all of them — including the very blue-eyed Becky (Alexis Bledel, above) — can very much hold their own.

    When one would-be john Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro) pulls a gun on Becky, she intones: “Oh sugar. You just gone and done the dumbest thing in your whole life.” Then her reinforcements arrive and things go very badly for Jackie Boy and his boys.

    Vivre Sa Vie (1962)

    Movies About Sex Work That Don't Sugarcoat Anything
    Credit: C/O

    In 12 vignettes, Jean-Luc Godard directs his then-wife and muse Anna Karina in this tough drama about a struggling woman who works in a record shop, mourning her collapsing marriage and dreaming of stardom.

    Instead, she descends into the world’s oldest profession, and things only get worse from there.

    The film’s bittersweet title translates to “My Life to Live.”

    Tangerine (2015)

    Credit: C/O

    Director and co-writer Sean Baker may be the greatest chronicler of modern-day hustlers, and Tangerine, shot on iPhones, is one of the best films of our relatively young century. It follows to transgender sex workers (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor) who stage a donut-shop confrontation with a cheating boyfriend.

    Comic, tragic, totally empathetic and gorgeous throughout — especially the drive-thru carwash scene — Tangerine is also, according to Rotten Tomatoes, it’s No. 4 on the list of the best Christmas movies ever made.

    The Florida Project (2017)

    Credit: C/O

    Sean Baker’s followup to Tangerine is another wild, brutally honest look at the life of a woman selling herself — one in perhaps even more desperate straits than the protagonists of Tangerine.

    The film stars first-time actress Bria Vinaite as Halley, who works out of a cheap motel on the outskirts of Orlando’s magic kingdom as she tries to shield her daughter (Brooklyn Prince) from the hardship of her life and make their sad surroundings feel like the happiest place on earth.

    Willem Dafoe (above, with Vinaite) earned an Oscar nomination for his role as motel manager Bobby, who doesn’t need money to have endless generosity. This is a real faith-in-humanity movie, even when things seem impossibly bleak.

    Almsot every Sean Baker film is in some sense about the world’s oldest profession, including the next one on our list…

    Anora (2024)

    Anora intimacy coordinators Anora easter egg Red Rocket easter egg
    Credit: C/O

    Baker’s 2024 story about a dancer and escort who finds herself in a relationship with a Russian oligarch’s son seems like a Pretty Woman fantasy — at first.

    But then Ani, aka Anora, discovers some grim realities about her new beau’s life. The movie is somehow frank, suspenseful, very funny and deeply sad, all at once.

    Anora cleaned up at the Oscars, winning Best Picture, Best Director for Sean Baker, Best Actress for lead Mikey Madison, and more. It also won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

    Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

    Credit: C/O

    If you’ve never heard of this film, you’re not alone — but film cognoscenti who took part in last year’s prestigious Sight and Sound poll declared it the greatest film of all time. You can decide for yourself next time you have three hours and twenty-one minutes to spare, because that’s the runtime of this French film, made by Chantal Akerman when she was just 25, about a widowed single mother who supports her son by entertaining male clients in her humble apartment.

    Whether its the best movie ever made is up for debate (among those who’ve actually seen it, at least) but it’s one of the most remarkable movies about the oldest profession in the way it presents it, nearly 50 years ago, as just another job.

    Liked This List of Movies About the World’s Oldest Profession That Don’t Sugarcoat Anything?

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    You might also like this list of movies that do sugarcoat the world’s oldest profession.



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  • 13 Movies About the Adult Entertainment Industry That Don’t Sugarcoat a Thing

    13 Movies About the Adult Entertainment Industry That Don’t Sugarcoat a Thing


    Here are 12 films about the adult entertainment industry that don’t sugarcoat a thing.

    Of course, it’s hard to generalize about a multibillion-dollar industry that has existed nearly as long as film itself, headquartered for decades in the San Fernando Valley over the Hollywood Hills from the mainstream Hollywood studios.

    When Hollywood looks to its Valley neighbors, it often does so by sugarcoating things — treating the industry as silly and amusing — or playing it for horror, with the implication that the adult entertainment business leads inevitably to violence.

    The following films are noteworthy for their blunt presentation of the industry. For the most part, they present it as an underground, unregulated economy where some people get along just fine — but others find themselves disappointed or worse. If you are looking for adult content, you may explore the best milf onlyfans pages.

    Hardcore (1979)

    Hardcore
    Credit: C/O

    Hardcore — recently part of a Paul Schrader retrospective on the Criterion Channel — is a fascinating but not completely successful film. George C. Scott plays Jake Van Dorn, a very religious Midwestern dad who has to travel to seedy Los Angeles when he learns his daughter, Kristen (Ilah Davis) has entered the adult entertainment industry.

    The film is a fascinating look at how the adult entertainment business functioned in the late 1970s. But Scott’s transformation from everyman to shrewd undercover avenger isn’t totally convincing. And it feels a bit melodramatic that Kristen descends so quickly into very violent films.

    Still, Season Hubley is excellent as Niki, Jake’s guide into the seedy underworld. it’s fun to imagine an older and more accomplished Schrader remaking this film with someone like Liam Neeson, the master of dad-on-a-rampage movies.

    Videodrome (1983)

    Universal Pictures – Credit: Universal Pictures

    David Cronenberg’s 1983 film fairly brilliantly presages the rise of the internet and our willingness to surrender some of our humanity in the service of technology, but it starts with a journey into old-fashioned adult entertainment.

    Max Renn (James Woods), president of a small UHF station, stumbles upon a broadcast signal of very alarming videos. This leads him to Nicki Brand (Debbie Harry) an explicit radio host with dark predilections.

    Max’s investigation of her disappearance leads to him having a Betamax cassette inserted into his torso, and his eventual effort to transcend our sick sad world and “leave the old flesh.” It’s all very metaphorical, but feels especially relevant in the age of artificial intelligence.

    Boogie Nights (1997)

    New Line Cinema – Credit: C/O

    You knew this would be here. For about the first half of Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterful second film, Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg, in his best role) finds a chosen family under the tutelage of Valley filmmaker Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds). Jack’s partner Amber Waves (Julianne Moore) and rising starlet Rollergirl (Heather Graham) even have kind of a mother-daughter dynamic.

    But as drugs and — gasp! — video take hold, Dirk descends into darker and darker stuff, and it quickly becomes apparent that the romanticized good times of the ’70s aren’t sustainable in the ’80s.

    Lots of people would love to live Dirk’s high-flying ’70s life, but no one would want his wretched existence in the ’80s.

    Demonlover (2002)

    Adult Entertainment Industry
    SND Films – Credit: C/O

    This French neo-noir corporate drama by Oliver Assayas stars Connie Nielsen as a sneaky, ice-cold executive involved in a French company’s acquisition of a Japanese company that makes very gross anime.

    The film is surprisingly frank in its presentation of said anime, but all the executives involved in the negotiations seem to see the material merely as a product, not a thing to be judged. There’s a great metaphor here about transactional relationships.

    As is often the case in dramatic portrayals of the industry, the more mainstream films portrayed in Demonlover (we use the phrase “mainstream” very loosely here) are a gateway into violent content in which people really get hurt. Or worse.

    After Porn Ends (2012)

    Lisa Ann in After Porn Ends. – Credit: C/O

    Documentarian Bryce Waggoner released three volumes of this excellent series with a simple but arresting concept: Adult entertainment performers simply explain what they’ve been doing since leaving the industry. (Waggoner directed the first two, and the third was directed by former adult performer Brittany Andrews.)

    The series removes artifice and fantasy to reveal the people of the industry as just people — some of whom are thriving, and some of whom are mightily struggling.

    It raises questions about stigma, exploitation and reinvention, without telling anyone how to think or feel.

    Lovelace (2013)

    Radius-TWC – Credit: C/O

    Amanda Seyfried (above) is excellent as Linda Lovelace, one of the most contentious figures in the history of the adult entertainment industry.

    She became a sex symbol for starring in what became one of the most mainstream and profitable of all adult films. But years later she wrote in her memoir, Ordeal, that she was violently forced into the business and all sorts of animalistic degradations.

    Lovelace handles her story sensitively and sympathetically, never crossing the line into the kind of exploitation the real Linda Lovelace tried to escape.

    King Cobra (2016)

    IFC Midnight – Credit: C/O

    One of the most common criticisms of the industry is that it exploits women. King Cobra is all about gay adult product, so the gender component is removed.

    But that brings into more stark relief other potential forms of exploitation: namely older people exploiting younger people, and people with money exploiting those without it. (These are also problems, of course, in supposedly respectable fields.)

    King Cobra is based on a true story — the source material is the book Cobra Killer by Andrew E. Stoner and Peter A. Conway, about the the life and early career of former adult actor Sean Paul Lockhart (Garrett Clayton, above).

    Written and directed by Justin Kelly, it’s a little-seen but captivating film with a top-notch cast that also includes Christian Slater, Molly Ringwald and James Franco, who is also a producer on King Cobra.

    American Porn (2002)

    PBS – Credit: C/O

    Journalism doesn’t get more serious than PBS’s Frontline, and in 2002 the Oscar and Emmy winning documentary program investigated the business of adult entertainment, charting its rise and the reason for the demand.

    If Hardcore provides a fascinating but melodramatic look at the industry in the late 1970s, this Frontline doc is a fascinating investigation of the state of the industry in the early 2000s, when the internet was radically shifting the dynamics of the business and making adult product more accessible than ever before.

    You can watch the entire documentary — and every episode of Frontline — for free online via your local PBS station.

    Red Rocket (2021)

    Simon Rex as Mikey Saber and Suzanna Son as “Strawberry” in Red Rocket, from director Sean Baker. A24 – Credit: Simon Rex as Mikey Saber and Suzanna Son as “Strawberry” in Red Rocket, from director Sean Baker. A24

    One of the best films on this list, Sean Baker’s Red Rocket is a judgment-free portrait of Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) an adult semi-star forced to return to his Texas hometown while on the outs from the industry.

    Mikey believes he can wheedle his way back in by convincing Raylee (Suzanna Son), a 17-year-old donut shop employee who goes by the name Strawberry, to join him. He also strings along his ex, Lexi (Bree Elrod) and her mom Lil (Brenda Deiss), so he can live with them while he gets back on his feet.

    Packed with excellent first-time actors, the film feel visceral and alive, adroitly blending comedy and sadness. It avoids moralizing, yet you’ll probably come to hold some strong opinions about Mikey.

    Baker is one of our greatest filmmakers, who uses stories about sex work to make broader points about hard work in general. His latest, Anora, is up for six Oscars, including Best Picture.

    Starlet (2012)

    Besedka Johnson, left, and Dree Hemingway in Starlet. Music Box Films – Credit: Besedka Johnson, left, and Dree Hemingway in Starlet. Music Box Films

    Almost every Sean Baker film involves some element of investigating sex work, always empathetically and evenhandedly.

    Baker and co-writer Chris Bergoch came up with the concept for the Mikey Saber character in Red Rocket while doing research for Starlet, when they realized how many male actors live off of female talent.

    Starlet follows Jane (Dree Hemingway), a 21-year-old rising star who strikes up an unlikely friendship with 85-year-old Sadie (Besedka Johnson).

    Money Shot (2023)

    Netflix – Credit: Netflix

    Director Suzanne Hillinger’s documentary about one of the most prominent websites for adults isn’t interested in anything salacious. It just sets out to normalize — and humanize — the people who just happen to make adult content for a living.

    “To me, it was really important the way that we shot the interviews, for example — that the environment around each interview subject is very much a part of the frame, that these are people in their homes, with details and lives and plants and pets and shoes in the background,” Hillinger told MovieMaker.

    Again, about the dashes — we know there’s nothing wrong with the word “shot,” but algorithms don’t, particularly when it’s paired with the word “money,” and we want people to be able to see these articles rather than having them buried by robots.

    Pleasure (2021)

    Movies About the Adult Industry
     SF-Produktion – Credit: C/O

    A Sundance darling that gained lots of initial attention for its blunt depictions, director Ninja Thyberg’s Pleasure is the story of Linnéa, a small-town Swede played by Sofia Kappel (pictured) who travels to Los Angeles to try to break into the industry.

    The film is notable for its multifaceted presentation of the adult world. Some of Linnéa’s experiences are good, but others are horrible, including a scene in which she technically consents to a violent scenario but does so only under considerable coercion and pressure. She soon finds herself contributing to the abuses.

    Bonus: X (2022)

    Ti West asked Mia Goth and every actor on X: Why the hell do you want to be in this movie?
    Mia Goth is Maxine, a young Texan looking for stardom in X, from Ti West. Photo by Christopher Moss. A24 – Credit: Sofia Kappel is Bella Cherry in Pleasure, from writer-director Ninja Thyberg

    All three films in Ti West’s X trilogy — the other two are 2022’s Pearl and 2024’s Maxxxine — seek to demystify the adult entertainment industry while exploring the stigma around both sex and violence.

    X is the most blunt about it. The film takes place on a very DIY adult film location — a Texas farm — where the older couple who own the place seem to disapprove of the young people’s shenanigans. But things are more complex than they seem.

    In all three X films, the main protagonist is a young woman — always played by Mia Goth — trying to use her sex appeal to get ahead. It doesn’t usually work out as she planned.

    Liked This List of 12 Films About the Adult Entertainment Industry That Don’t Sugarcoat Anything?

    Movies About Oldest Profession That Don't Sugarcoat Anything
    Vivre sa vie. Panthéon Distribution – Credit: C/O

    You may also like this list of movies about the world’s oldest profession that sugarcoat things quite a bit.

    Main image: Sofia Kappel as Bella Cherry in Pleasure, from writer-director Ninja Thyberg. SF-Produktion



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