From Marilyn Monroe’s Playboy cover to the ever-scrolling porn streaming sites, blondes have long reigned supreme. However, pornography can be an extremely dangerous and exploitative industry; Ninja Thyberg’s Pleasure follows Bella Cherry a Swedish blonde who relocates to Los Angeles hoping to become a sex worker – its dream-like structure depicting Bella’s highs and lows within California pornography’s fringe world is depicted vividly; reading it as a cautionary tale fails her as it obscures all its complexity as working within an obscure subculture requires sacrifices of consent from participants within that industry that often requires compromising consent of consent of participants within its fold.
This review is based on a screening attended during the 2017 Seattle International Film Festival. For tickets and more info, click here.