This is the story of director Dag Yngvesson's journey to find out about the porn industry which had fascinated him ever since he saw his first movie as a teenager. The quest to find out what the business was like begins when he realizes that he was living only 10 miles from the industries center in the San Fernando Valley in California. Not knowing what to do or where to start he calls up William Margold who had starred in the first film he saw (he found his name in the phone book and just called him). Margold, still in the business (having begun in 1969 and continuing on in one form or another) invites Dag over, and it isn't long before Dag is going down the rabbit hole into the middle of the world of adult films.
The film is arranged more or less to follow the director down the rabbit hole. We watch as he meets people in the industry, many of whom will not talk to him without having their face somehow obscured (indeed the director of one film threatens to kill him if he films his face since his parents don't know what he does.) We see how the films are made and distributed. We see some good people and some sleazy people (The casting agent who insists on sleeping with all the girls on the spot on film is a major slime-ball). Mostly we see lots of people doing a job, that just happens to be having or filming sex. Its not particularly erotic, it just sort of is.
The fact that it just sort of is is really nice. This is neither the "porn is bad" histrionics that films like Not a Love Story, a different film called Rated X from many years ago, Gregory Darks Fallen Angels or anything anti-industry forces ever produced like some of the bad TV movies, nor is it a smutty "this can be fun" that films like Screwed, Boogie Nights or the Ron Jeremy biography make it out to be.
I really liked this film a great deal. Say what you will about the industry, its rarely been shown as anything other than a sleaze pit and while this film doesn't paint it as all sunshine and daisies, it does go a good distance into showing it in another light. This is a business pure and simple, a business who's business it is film people having sex. This film shows what it takes to be in the industry and why many people try their hand at the business, money. (Someone comments that the government will never get rid of the industry, even if they may seem to try, simply because too much money is generated by it.) It also shows it to be the dull grind that most other jobs are, sure sex is involved, but after awhile it gets boring and mechanical. Glamorous it ain't. The movie on the other hand is very eye opening and informative.
If you've ever been curious about the industry give this movie a try. Though be warned there is a great deal of nudity and some graphic sex, which is of course the nature of the beast.
A friendly word of advice: If you're looking for porn under the guise of getting a serious film look elsewhere, this isn't that sort of a movie and you'll be better off getting the real stuff.
