What she’s not prepared for is the mistreatment of other women required of her along the way.
Styling herself as Bella Cherry, she sets out to be the biggest name in hardcore porn, and is prepared to accept any number of indignities in the process. Except that Swedish immigrant Linnéa (an extraordinary Sofia Kappel) isn’t wholly disillusioned in the process. Out now on Mubi (after a one-night-only cinema stint last week), it’s a tough, de-glittered spin on an oft-told story: young ingenue arrives in Los Angeles with stars in her eyes, only for her dreams to curdle on her. Swedish director Ninja Thyberg’s striking debut, Pleasure, challenges viewers with frank imagery and endurance-testing scenes of sexual exploitation – though rather than feeling like a leering provocation, there’s a clinical ring of truth to it. Two new-to-streaming films take differing (and differently gendered) approaches to the American porn industry’s consumption of its performers.
P ornography is a tricky subject for mainstream or even respectable arthouse cinema, forcing film-makers to walk a fine line: veil or sanitise the subject too much and you lose any sense of authenticity lean too far into its taboo realities and you risk running afoul of the censors yourself.
