Popular reviews

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  Review by Jay ★★★★ 8

  the best movie about swedish girls and orgasms since midsommar

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  Review by Lucy ★★★★½ 18

  SUNDANCE 2021: film #32

  “you won’t find anyone like me”

  i’m completely floored. i’ve been terrified of watching this the entire festival, fearing the worst, and while this is an extremely difficult watch in terms of both sex and sexual assault/violence i never once felt that we weren’t supposed to have empathy for the protagonist in those situations. sofia kappel (in her first acting role ever) is magnetic and perfectly cast, and behind the camera ninja thyberg masterfully maps out every scene. together they made this intense as wildfire, both beautiful and dangerous, something that i couldn’t tear my eyes away from even when they began to water and burn

  the unflinching look at the sex industry is deeply unsettling…

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  Review by CinemaVoid 🏴‍☠️ ★★★★ 10

  We’re really lucky that emotional scars are invisible otherwise porn would be fucking disgusting.

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  Review by karsten ★★★★

  more yung lean than i was expecting

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  Review by AmandaTheJedi ★★★★ 1

  A very hard watch and some people should skip this for that alone. If you're sensitive to sexual assault, this is not a movie you should watch.

  But at the same time, a very real look at the inner workings of the porn industry, and knowing this only scratched the surface of what happens is horrifying. While this premiered in the midnight time slot without being in the midnight category, it was certainly a horror in a lot of ways.

  It's graphic, uncomfortable and tense, though some may feel it goes too far in areas without addressing it more in its conclusion. But I think it did a great job showing why people are attracted to this line of work and what they have to do to attain it as it opens up to the brutal reality many face.

  Amazing performance from Sofia Kappel

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  Review by davidehrlich ★★★½ 2

  A husky-voiced Swedish Kesha look-alike lands at LAX and walks up to the customs booth wearing a furry, multi-colored jacket that screams “look at me!” while also whispering “but not too hard.” We already suspect that she’s a porn star, or at least in Los Angeles to become one — there has to be some reason why the opening credits were soundtracked by the unmistakable sounds of performative deep-throats and flesh T-boning against bare thighs — and so we’re in on the gag when the customs agent asks if our girl is in town for business or pleasure. She waits for a beat, and then responds with the naive smile of someone who doesn’t realize she might be giving the…

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  Review by Lucy ★★★★½ 8

  AFI 2021: film #8

  “it doesn’t matter what you do for a living, you have bad days at work”
  
  feels like i’ve been thinking about this daily and singing about it from the rooftops since sundance earlier this year, so of course i leapt at the chance to rewatch. while i still don’t think it’s perfect, (and still definitely not for everyone), i’m glad to discover that it did hold up as a striking film and a fantastic debut for both the director and lead star. i’m kind of awed by how much plot is tightly wound into the framework, and by the ending it all comes full circle in both bad ways and good. but the perspective might be…

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  Review by George Clark ★★★½

  Pleasure is an amazing, disgraceful, uncomfortable and brutally honest film, taking a look at the porn industry in a way no film has ever captured before. It’s graphic to the point it makes you feel uncomfortable, never straying away from anything less than the truth it becomes truly powerful. You’ve got to respect Sofia Kappel for what she went through to do this. It couldn’t have been easy and her performance shows that, shining throughout with one of the best performances of the year. Director Ninja Thyberg tells an important story here, and while I’m never going to watch this again, every aspect of this film impressed me and the fact that it doesn't shy away from the uncomfortable specifics makes it a must watch. 
  2021 Releases Ranked 

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  Review by Héctor ★★★★ 15

  The amount of male actors i knew before watching this... 🥲

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  Review by cookie ★★★★ 4

  heartbreaking, how deeply the violence of the porn industry cuts. there’s one particularly hard-to-watch physical assault scene that really illuminates how evil this business is, but that moment is merely a drop in the ocean when surrounded by more covert, deeper-wounding reinforcements of the same ilk. death by a thousand paper cuts: the gross manipulation tactics to coerce sex workers, especially women, into giving a verbal yes when their minds and bodies are screaming NO, (choice is an illusion!) the contorting of their bodies to the male gaze atop regal four-poster beds not made for sleeping in, (your body does not belong to you, it is for audiences to ogle at + consume!) and the waking up at the ass…

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  Review by BeHaind ★★½ 8

  Titten, Ärsche, immer geil, immer willig sein. Alle Stellungen, alle Körperöffnungen. Ein Mann, zwei Männer, zehn. Dazwischen Erniedrigungen, sexuelle Gewalt und Einsamkeit. „Pleasure“ ist nicht der erste Film, der die Pornoindustrie portraitiert, aber Regisseurin Ninja Thyberg spart sich die verklärte Romantisierung, mit der etwa „Boogie Nights“ darauf blickt. Statt sonnendurchfluteter Drehs in schicken Villen gibt’s hier Spucke im Gesicht und Analduschen auf dem Klo. „Pleasure“ zeigt mit dem Finger auf eine Branche, in der „Consent“ bedeutet, solange verunsichert zu werden, bis ein „Nein“ kaum noch als Option erscheint. 

  Allerdings: viel mehr als das hat Ninja Thyberg dann leider auch nicht im Gepäck. „Pleasure“ bleibt als der Film mit den entblößten Penissen und einer unangenehmen Misshandlung im Gedächtnis, aber irgendwas zu…

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  Review by Jack ★★★★ 2

  Pleasure is an unflinching, wholly uncomfortable watch that provides nothing but an honest portrayal of the porn industry and the nature of consent. It holds nothing back, with the simply terrific and fearless Sofia Kappel leading the way. Kudos to Ninja Thyberg for bringing something to the screen that others wouldn’t dare to try because, wow, is this story an important one to tell.