Pleasure – first-look review | Little White Lies

Festivals

Plea­sure – first-look review

02 Feb 2021

Words by Emily Maskell

A woman in a red swimsuit sitting on a pink inflatable pool float against a backdrop of a blue pool.
A woman in a red swimsuit sitting on a pink inflatable pool float against a backdrop of a blue pool.
Nin­ja Thyberg’s debut fea­ture deliv­ers an inti­mate per­spec­tive on the adult enter­tain­ment industry.

Plea­sure fol­lows 20-year-old Bel­la (Sofia Kap­pel) as she leaves her Swedish home­town for Los Ange­les. Upon arrival at the US bor­der, she tells immi­gra­tion that she has arrived in Amer­i­ca for plea­sure.” In the fall­out of writer/​director Nin­ja Thyberg’s film, it becomes clear that Bel­la might as well have said busi­ness.”

Bel­la strides con­fi­dent­ly into the adult enter­tain­ment world intend­ing to become the next big porn star. See­ing new girl Ava Rhoad­es’ (Eve­lyn Claire) rise to star­dom, it quick­ly becomes appar­ent that for Bel­la to make it to the top she must relax her bound­aries. Get­ting signed to Mike’s (Jason Tol­er) agency is Bella’s first step, and it’s here she meets Joy (Revi­ka Anne Reustle) and a col­lec­tive of women whose care for each oth­er is the only pro­tec­tion they receive in the industry.

Explic­it from its first moments, Thyberg’s film explores pow­er, sex­u­al­i­ty and friend­ship, adopt­ing a female worker’s‑eye view in a male-dom­i­nat­ed indus­try in order to show that the glossy, pris­tine sets tell a dif­fer­ent real­i­ty to that behind the cam­era. Yet Plea­sure doesn’t reveal any­thing new about the gen­der roles and pow­er dynam­ics embed­ded in the patri­ar­chal struc­tures of the adult film industry.

It’s not nudi­ty that makes Plea­sure dar­ing­ly provoca­tive; rather, it’s the under­ly­ing con­cern that Bella’s non­con­sen­su­al cries won’t be heard. In one deeply uncom­fort­able sequence, that night­mare comes to fruition. The male-run set degrades and humil­i­ates Bel­la in a scene of graph­ic sex­u­al assault that goes too far. It’s a hor­rif­ic, voyeuris­tic and trou­bling moment.

Pleasure’s per­spec­tive is its strongest asset. As Bel­la, new­com­er Sofia Kap­pel gives a com­mit­ted per­for­mance, shapeshift­ing into what is expect­ed and need­ed from her. Added real­ism comes from the sup­port­ing cast and extras, many of whom are pro­fes­sion­als from the adult enter­tain­ment industry.

Although Plea­sure starts impor­tant con­ver­sa­tions sur­round­ing the entrenched issues of racism and sex­ism with­in pornog­ra­phy, as evi­denced in Mike’s dis­dain of being brand­ed a fetish and the poor work­ing con­di­tions the women must endure, these dia­logues are ulti­mate­ly aban­doned for a more con­ven­tion­al nar­ra­tive of straight whiteness.

In try­ing to assert her agency in an indus­try that will nev­er let her be tru­ly inde­pen­dent, Bel­la strives for empow­er­ment but nev­er quite achieves it. Thyberg’s cam­era turns the focus away from sex­u­al nudi­ty and onto the harsh real­i­ty and treat­ment that these young women face. With clar­i­ty, the most dire and dis­gust­ing aspects of the porn indus­try are high­light­ed in this tech­ni­cal­ly accom­plished if poten­tial­ly divi­sive 18+ feature.

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