Tricked: The Documentary (2013) User Reviews

A Horrifying and Stark Look into Life in the Sex Trade...

[Bexcellent · 8/10 · 1 April 2015]

This is a well done documentary addressing all of the aspects of the complicated and dark world of sex trafficking. With the use of interviews and first hand accounts from pimps, johns, the sex workers themselves and even the police officers and psychologists working to end the sex trade, this documentary is able to give a balanced view of slavery in modern America.

If nothing else, it's an important movie to watch based on just some of the comments made by reviewers on this site. Even with the trade of minors into sex slavery and the sexual and psychological abuse that pimps use to keep a hold on their workers, some people still decide to blame the victims of these tragedies. These stories are not suspect nor are they the fault of the women involved - they are stark, and real, and paint a sickening picture of the worth of a woman in a society that has veiled blatant sexism, sexual abuse and victimization by turning a blind eye and blaming the women involved. We laud over ourselves for being advanced in our ideologies, and in the same breath fund a multi-million dollar underground industry where the worth of a woman is, literally, anywhere from $40 to $100.

All I can say is, watch this movie. Definitely if you are interested in the background of illicit sex work and especially if you are blind to its existence. The only major thing lacking for me was any discussion of the role of men as victims in sex trade, as I think for us to continue to battle this monster, those voices must not be silenced either. That aside, I found this documentary to be honest, unforgiving and enlightening.

Solid

[charismaticseparatist · 8/10 · 16 May 2014]

I saw this at a screening in Denver last night. It's basically an exposé of the teen prostitution phenomenon that exists across the country, as told by cops, pimps, journalists, johns, legislators and (most compellingly) former prostitutes. I felt it offered a very intense glimpse into a dark corner of our society that many of us know little about. It's interesting that, for all us Americans talk about the bad stuff that goes down in other countries, there are apparently things here in the states (e.g. The Players' Ball - look it up) that occur more or less openly and are pretty damn egregious.

The two things I wanted more from this film were: some more direct verbal interaction between people who support "the game" and those whose job it is to destroy it; and more consideration of how the "pimp and ho" culture interpenetrates with mainstream culture.

All in all, though, I was quite impressed. Daniel Steele, the main cop featured in the film, is a freakin' jedi.

Survivor review Documentary was good. The ignorance in these reviews are horrible

[rebeccaamato · 8/10 · 27 January 2020]

I think in general this documentary was decent. It could have done a better job of addressing assumptions people make.

As a survivor I really feel the need to address some of the crap being said in these reviews..... 1. "Why didn't they just ask for help they had opportunities " traffickers use so many tactics to discourage victims like threats against loved ones, physical violence,manipulation, ect.... traffickers groom their victims. There is also a lot of shame and embarrassment that victims feel because of what society says. Let's not forget the fear of bot being believed. As far as the police... you never know which ones will help and which ones won't. Some of them (especially in D.C.) help the traffickers. One time when I was arrested the cop kept telling me about how he wanted to bend me over and spank me. When I actually asked for help the officer wrote it up as a welfare check and said "when you go back to work for him if you see me on the track act like you don't know me" and this was a female officer that said this. So yes asking for help isn't always helpful 😑😑😑😒

2. "Most of them are doing this willingly" Nobody wakes up and says hey I think I am going to sell my body today. A majority of these victims have experienced some kind of trauma that helped to push them in this direction. Traffickers prey on people that they think they can control and groom. Victims aren't always kidnapped. I met my first trafficker when I was 15 and he pretended to be my boyfriend for months before he even admitted to being a "pimp".

I would keep going, but honestly the more I am thinking about some of the responses the more it pisses me off because it's these crap assumptions that make it more difficult for victims to get help.

Informative movie

[gc-01414 · 10/10 · 12 October 2016]

It's really hard to believe there are stupid people out there who would be critical about this film ...bitching about how one sided it is !?!? If there was a movie about "violent rape" and it interviewed a handful or rape victims would they be saying the same thing ... (in a dopey, slow drawl) "hey I don't know what to think about this film because it's one sided, I would like to hear from the rapists before I make any judgments" Seriously? They are talking about kids in this movie being tricked by adults ! Really do you think teenagers and or pre-teens want to service an old fat men for $30? And then hand over the money? And to do this morning, noon and night? Do you think children are just as smart as an adult? Do you think a child's brain is fully developed? Do you think a child has sharpened critical thinking skills. Do you think adults can manipulate a child's mind and threaten them with violence to them and or to their families to control them? You do realized a human's brain isn't fully developed until 25 right. Do you know when you capture an elephant you need to only chain it up for a few weeks and after unsuccessfully trying to break the chain it can be secured with a rope for the rest of it's life. Well humans are not elephants but the same principle applies at least for a while. The lack of intelligence and compassion with these moronic reviews is beyond me, please go slap your parents for raising a nincompoop.

Amazed

[emilysartwork · 10/10 · 22 March 2015]

You know what I find amazing about this movie? Is how it's rated on this site as "comedy/drama" and how I've read several callous and horrible reviews claiming that these girls are willing participants. This is a LIE- and whoever writes such a review about the sexual life of a minor (usually) as someone who is willing and part of a trafficking situation usually related to a man who is telling them he loves her and she is doing it because she likes it. I'm appalled at how many people won't believe this is really happening. For shame to all of you. This is an excellent and necessary film. Save our girls and young women! Don't believe these idiots who say this movie is bad! It's not- it's a great piece.

One of the best I've seen in a very long time

[kendallschristopher-48703 · 10/10 · 15 February 2019]

Super low budget for a documentary but this documentary catches your attention from the opening scenes. A lot of documentaries focus heavily on the exploitation of women sold into the trade but this one is great because they show you how the trade operates out in the open. Definitely not what I expected, and goes to show you that as smart as you think that you are, the criminals are even smarter. You would be surprised, who is involved in this trade, and what backgrounds they come from.

You can probably catch it on Netflix, as they seem to be the best place for these documentaries.

What a load of brazen garbage,

[midnight_cinephile · 17 March 2015]

"TRICKED" ? Really? Are my heart strings supposed to be pulled by this joke of a film? Perhaps in a few cases some "adult" or in this case teenage women have had a gun put to their head and forced into "the life" but I suspect this is a rare occurrence and this is a very one sided documentary. Once again we have WASP Puritan ethics from the 1700's forming the foundation for sorely outdated moronic laws and vice oriented law enforcement.

Entrapping idiotic horny johns looking for a 30.00 dollar blowjobs is not real police work,it's shooting fish in a barrel. Cops that are on prostitution detail are belaboring the outcome and wasting taxpayer dollars-VERY LITTLE OF WHAT THEY DO WILL STOP THE PROSTITUTION GAME.

They should be out fighting real crime.

Cops have to make arrests and justify their salaries and fill quotas.

It's sickening to watch the facade of sanctimonious justified indignation as displayed by law enforcement in this so called "film".

THIS JUST IN : If prostitution was legalized,regulated and taxed there would be fewer pimps,violence or disease/unwanted pregnancies.

After thousands of years of studying human behavior the results are blaitantly obvious- PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS BUY AND SELL SEX - do I have to cite the biggest cliché ever created ?

Whoring is the "world's oldest profession"

Get over it already,no one forced these ladies into a life of whoring.

Not for one second did I feel sorry for the gal who was "tricked" into being a whore in Boston as she went thru college.

She was smart enough to get into a good school,but somehow lost all of her common sense at that rundown motel 6 in Roxbury on that fabled evening on her hands and knees working for "toughie " the pimp?

The herd just got a little bit thinner.

She could have gotten a real job making low wages flipping burgers like millions of college kids all over the world to pay for her education. Hoe-ever ..the truth is she didn't...she chose whoring instead. Then we get treated to an interview with her mother crying foul about how her child's innocence was stolen?

Bitch please....wake up and smell the KY jelly. Your daughter wasn't "tricked" into anything,she was lazy and didn't want to work a real job. She had freewill and she used it.

I see a lot of women in the film who took the easy way out and DIDN'T WANT TO WORK A REAL JOB.

GUESS WHAT ? IT'S NOT THE PIMPS FAULT OR THE JOHN'S FAULT THAT THEY PUT THEMSELVES UP ON THE MEAT MARKET.

As for the film itself : there is nothing new uncovered here. This story is as old as the hills and has been covered extensively in many other documentaries and dramas.

Painting the pigs as Knights in shining armor and the girls as victims is a one sided portrayal of a complex dynamic.

Nothing in 'reality" is as it appears,nothing is ever so clean cut and black and white in the real world.

The truth and reality is that the world is a shade of grey and this film is half assed and biased,

Yes pimps are violent thugs, Yes,young women/teens and pre teens are selling their bodies to survive all over the world. This film is enabling the victim mentality and it is a one sided view of the game. I call BS.

edit: This review does not in any way advocate or condone the abuse or exploitation of minors____ EVER ! All of my comments pertain to adults over the age of consent-18-21 years of age PERIOD.

A Look At The Sex Trade

[gavin6942 · 6/10 · 19 March 2015]

This character-driven film considers the evolving sex trafficking landscape as seen by the main players: the exploited, the pimps, the johns that fuel the business, and the cops who fight to stop it.

Were these women "forced to work"? One of the first stories shows a woman who claims she was beat up in an alley and then forced to work. This story is very suspect. Not to blame the victim, but it seems odd that rather than go to police she chose to start prostitution. That is a pretty extreme. And this is apparently typical?

Is this a business partnership? Journalist Nick Kristof thinks not, and sees it only as violence and exploitation. Is this always true? Maybe in the United States, where prostitution is illegal. It would be interesting to compare these situations to Nevada or the Netherlands.

Nonsensical propaganda. The Reefer Madness of it's genre.

[kingstonhawke · 1/10 · 13 May 2015]

I'm biased because I have quite intimate knowledge of this world from multiple perspectives. But this documentary was just awful! Seriously, I've watched a lot in this category (and many others) and this one was the worse by a long shot.

I'll give it some credit. It was well put together. A lot of these documentaries come off looking really low budget, this was not the case. But, I'd rather take a low budget documentary that makes me think, instead of some well polished hatchet piece that insults my intelligence at every turn.

Spoiler: The whole point of this documentary is to make you believe that all sex workers are tortured slaves (mostly children), and pimps are their evil slave masters. If we eradicate the pimps then the whole system will collapse and live will be better once again....

If you have a brain then you can see how silly a premise this is. It glosses over all of the core issues of morality dealing with sex work. The issues that make this issue intriguing to begin with. Is it not a victimless crime? If the victim is created by the illegality then shouldn't the legislators be the target? Where does personal responsibility come into play? Etc, etc, etc. NONE of this get's asked. Instead, it stays true to the course. All prostitutes are victims of some overlord who is forcing them via violence to give away their most precious possession.

OMG the grandstanding in this documentary was so retarded. You have a guy telling the camera that he would murder if someone talked his daughter into selling sex. Because murder is more OK than selling sex I guess. And there are no white pimps in this whole movie. You really want me to believe that all pimps are black? If that's true then the numbers posed at the ending definitely can't be true.

Like I said. This is Reefer Madness for it's genre. I'm assuming a state funded shot at trying to force beliefs that don't make any sense down your throat instead of simply providing information from all sides and letting you come to your own conclusion.

Dishonest, myopic propaganda

[theprivateer82 · 2/10 · 19 April 2016]

This film depicts prostitution with a set of preconceptions.

The preconceptions are: 1. Prostitution is necessarily exploitative; (it can be voluntary) 2. That prostitution is only a world of pimps and slaves; where pimps somehow enslave unwilling women. (These women, by the way, to the outside observer: ostensibly are free at many times to leave, contact police or otherwise get help) These women it is said in the documentary hand over ALL of their money to their pimps - thus making them slaves - (Again, HUH?!). This argument to me does not make sense in any shape or form. 3. That pimps are somehow the problem with prostitution, (johns a close second) and as if arresting all the pimps, and perhaps then all the johns would solve the problem and stop the exploitation - without looking at any wider implications of laws in other countries. The makers might discover that legalisation may have a role in stopping this 4. That the police are doing a good job - this couldn't be further from the truth. The pathetic stings of vice police in this movie of johns is utterly ridiculous, and a waste of police resources.

I urge anyone considering watching this movie read widely about worldwide prostitution regulation and make up their own mind. To all the USA readers of this review - ESPECIALLY YOU.

I gave this 2/10 because I enjoyed the moralistic spectacle of the policemen crying their hearts out.

Over a 6 really?

[kellyleaveck · 4/10 · 5 April 2015]

A numbingly simple and one-sided myopic glance at a much larger and complex social issue. Played out old pimp stereotypes, sob story from family, cops that don't care, and posturing. When I sit through a doc I want to learn something and if fail that at least be entertained, neither of which this movie was able to do. I struggled to give it a 4 instead of a 3 but had to go with 4 because it does have camera quality and audio was good. So minus points for A/V I feel happy with a solid 2 rating.

So this thing is making me write a longer review then needed sooo. Things they could of done to make this a much more relevant film.....

Show how modern technology is playing a deeper and much greater role in prostitution.

Show the laws/loopholes/associations/ that are helping prostitution instead of a vague reference to them and touting out some major news headline like a dog with a bone. (the Vegas Redlight thing)

Show how the sexulization of children in our main stream media play a role in making them softer targets for pimps.

Show cases where prostitution is legal and actually benefits the women to offer a more rounded view and offer some possible solutions.

The list goes on for miles...

Like everything in the media, based in truth but...

[hijinxross · 4/10 · 24 March 2015]

not the whole truth, with some creative license to make it more interesting. Crazy characters to make it more outrageous and crazy. It also plays into stereotypes and not every pimp is some fast talking, uneducated, black thug. If they wanted to show the true trafficking, it is more than just kidnapped girls, there are some that choose it as well but they are still victims, of course, never forget that.

Side note: this "examines all sides" of the trade, and yet no mention is made of the men and boys that are victimized. Male victims are less likely to seek help or report as well as less likely to receive help or even be taken seriously. The estimate is a "mere" 2% of the estimated three MILLION people currently victimized in sex trafficking are male. Regardless, male or female, no one should be a slave no matter what the reason.

Most women who prostitute do it without a pimp and for themselves. This film makes their lives harder.

[worldnick · 1/10 · 29 July 2018]

This film is a propaganda piece claiming that this is what prostitution is. This is the MTV version of prostitutes including a pimp and ho ball. This is not the vast majority of prostitution. It's labeling all prostitution as some kind of slavery. This is flat out incorrect. There is a current trend concerning sex trafficking that is being use to take our rights away like SESTA. People are being manipulated by media like this so that certain people have more control over them. Prostitution should probably be legal and all prostitution is definitely not sex trafficking. In today's age most of these women don't even have pimps. This film is inflammatory, incorrect and used as fuel to take away our rights.