Pornography: A Thriller (2009)

It is a performances centric movie

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is the first review i have written about a movie but I felt the need to share my utter disappointment with this film. I love watching gay films because a lot of them are low budget and poorly done which makes them that more interesting to watch. This film however left me lost and I spent more time trying to figure out where people were then watching the movie. It finally dawned on me that we had jumped to a completely different story all together...so glad it was made clear we were jumping stories. As one of the other reviews put it, with proper directing, this could have been a really good thriller and could have gone far. As it is now though, it just sucks and not worth your time.

This is the best-made gay film I've seen for years: the editing, acting, writing, creative camera angles, sound effects, mixed film stock, etc all had the sheen of a glossy blockbuster despite the tiny budget.I think the reason this has received rubbish reviews is because the trailer portrays this as a nonstop bonkfest. In fact it's a complicated psychological drama with elements of horror told in three separate but interlocked stories.The main thing to keep in mind is that it's about dreams and film and other virtual realities, so although it may not make perfect sense, like a dream it does have its own internal logic. Stop craving continuity. You even have to stop thinking all the characters are real, doing realistic things.I admit being confused by the end, but the movie was so well done I watched it again with the commentary and sussed some things that hadn't occurred to me. Ask yourself for instance whether the boyfriend in the second part actually exists and you'll start appreciating the complexities of the film.What I've decided is that the first act is the nearest thing to reality in the entire movie, showing the humdrum existence of being a sex worker, explaining the reasons why people find themselves in the industry and showing what it takes to join the 'real world'.Next, you've got a consumer of pornography who passes off his voyeurism as research. He starts off as an ordinary Joe with a perfect life and perfect boyfriend, but the key to his scenes is that little of what he says, sees or does can be relied upon.Finally, you've got a character living in the real world, but whose dreams are real as well. This enables him to experience the lives of other people, which initially he thinks is his own creative imagination and something he can exploit for profit, but later he sees the underbelly of the industry and recognises the intrusiveness of cameras.It requires concentration, so kudos to the team behind this for daring to arouse an audience's curiosity for a change.

David Kittredge has style - it is a style that inhabits a number of other really fine writers and directors as Christopher Nolan (Memento), David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive etc), Claude Chabrol (Chloe), Alain Resnais (Last Year at Marienbad, etc). Good company, this, and it would seem that given some time to develop his technique and perhaps seek the assistance of some other script doctors he will likely become an important artist in film. In PORNOGRAPHY: A THRILLER he comes close, but it seems like the finished product was rushed to screen before the kinks were ironed out. There are three interweaving stories in this movie about the male pornography business. It begins with a well-known Los Angeles porn actor Mark Anton (Jared Gray) who is talked into a final film deal where he will make a large amount of money for a one night stand, but the one night stand seems to be a snuff film project with Mark interviewed in the dark by a crazed killer. Jump 14 years ahead to New York City and Michael (Matthew Montgomery) and his partner William (Walter Delmar) move into a large apartment in Brooklyn. Michael is doing research on a book on pornography and in the process receives strange photographs in the mail that lead to the discovery of the presence of evidence that video cameras had at one time been installed in their apartment, videos they come to discover show the 'snuff film' of Mark Anton! The discovery leas to dire consequences. The third story involves porn star Matt Stevens (Peter Scherer) who out of a dream state begins writing then directing and casting a film called 'The Mark Anton Story' in which Matt will play the role of Mark Anton! In the film his partner Jason (Walter Delmar) is a participant in the horror that follows and instead of a film about the death of Mark Anton no one is able to tell where reality stops and thriller starts. It is a classical dilemma for the audience of the conundrum 'What is real'? The cast is well trained and there are some cameos by Wyatt Fenner and Rasool J'Han that are particularly fine. Give David Kittredge some time and he may become an important figure in cinema!

While I normally enjoy pornography of all kinds when it is done in a documentary way; it is not palatable when one adds a plot which does not have a way of telling a complete story. This is that kind of film. The writer/director, apart from having an obvious love for film and its techniques and auteurs by the dozens, he only picks bits and pieces from some of his favorites, and then writes a story that should have been storyboarded, in order to even play homage to his most often used,enigmatic and "surprise/plot" directors. Hitchcock would have thought this the longest trailer in history......as a matter of fact, the movie IS a long trailer. I yearned for reason, as well as reason for casting, for lighting, for a clarity, and for ONE interesting character. What a bunch of bores the writer wrote. Who the hell cares? It sounds homophobic, but gay films must learn to realize that the serious subjects are always going to deal with "gay" and its problems, and MUST not try and take itself seriously. Lesbian films succeed because they are willing to take chances with honesty and anti heterosexual subjects.