Working Girls

What we see is a day in the life of a brothel working girl. This is no cartoonish whorehouse with supermodels in garter belts sucking poutily on their fingers while lounging suggestively on chaise lounges in a gaudy parlor. These are real-looking women at the workplace.

Nothing unusual happens today. Someone calls in sick, someone has to pick up an extra shift, someone new starts work, lunch is ordered, jokes are shared, co-workers talk about how much they hate their boss, just a normal day, just a normal job.

Only it's not a normal job. This is such an honest film, it blew me away. Prostitution isn't glamorized, nor is its depiction harsh enough to scare you straight. Good script, well worth seeing.

The drawback? Obvious amateurs in most of the roles. Sometimes the acting is wooden -- but it can be forgiven because everything else is anything but.

Molly is an over educated lesbian who works as a prostitute in order to save up enough money to start her own business. Her coworker prostitutes she works with have various other reasons for getting into this line of work. The johns are mostly upscale and have their own individual idiosyncrasies that are for the most part amusing. The director of the film is a feminist named Lizzie Borden. I expected a very biased treatment of this subject because of her gender politics but she was surprisingly fair and unbiased in her treatment. Despite some average acting the characters are so fascinating and dialog so engaging that the film had my attention all throughout which says much because there are many higher budgeted films with very large budgets and top talent that covered the same subject and not nearly as well. Working Girls is a good film and well worth a look.

Here is one film from 1987 that stands alone. I've seen this movie numerous times. I love it. Everyone else, that I've given this movie to, hates it, or just doesn't like it. It''s my brother in law's worst movie. He was pulling incredulous looks, when he watched it with me and my sister, he actually thought it was that bad. I'm sure most escorts would tell you, this film is true to fact. It opens up, where our main character Molly, who's into photography, and shares her New York apartment with her lesbian lover and kids, is getting ready for the day. Hardly any dialogue takes place here, and we have this interesting piece of music that accompanies it. Then it's off to work on her bicycle and we get into the story. It's basically Molly's story, a day in the life of a brothel worker. There in this ordinary looking apartment that operates as a brothel, we meet some other girls. Only a couple of them are moderately good looking. Their male clients are mostly ordinary looking, intellectual forties to sixties types, a mixture of pathetic, obscene, degrading, cruel, some who are good hearted types. A younger client, a musician who's been harassing Molly to get together with him on the outside, gets forceful with her, providing a dangerous touch to the film and shows you that small minority of clients you don't need. Most of the actress's here, have only done one or too films, which gives it that documentary feel and it works. One of the exclusions is Ellen Mcduff (that kooky waitress in Maximum Overdrive) who's the star performer as the heartless Madam Lucy. She's fantastic. Another good performance is Amanda Goodwin (Whore) one of the younger, fiesty, and more popular workers, Dawn, who Lucy rides a lot, but our independent Dawn dishes it back, one scene provoking Lucy to slap her. I love it. It's the characters of the tricks that make the movie work, some of them wanting some really weird requests. We have one character, Fantasy Fred, a big burly guy, again, ordinary looking type, who sees all the new girls, like Molly. Here, Molly plays the blind virgin, and Fantasy Fred, is the one who can cure her blindless-follow. We have a sixties client/lawyer, another of Molly's fans who wants to get together on the outside. He, a valued client, likes dominatrix. They have a special room, called the jungle room. While being tied down and whipped, right in the middle of it, he interrupts the middle of the show by asking the time. Nearly all of the film takes place in the apartment, save for a couple of scenes that has Molly out, buying a heavy inventory of contraceptives, etc. The male pharmacist, saying "You don't take any chances, do ya?". Another scene has her spying on her lesbian's daughter, in the playground of her kindergarten. Then it's back to work. We really get to be part of the story with these girls, even sharing a rushed lunch hour for em'. We even celebrate a worker's fiftieth birthday, as well as meet a new girl starting, the second best looking, to Gina. One of her first jobs has her making out with Molly, which she's phobic about, and it isn't soon before this young lass is packing her bags. We have madam Lucy out at lunch with her boyfriend, married of course, who has to rush back as the phones are kept putting on hold. She's goes absolutely ape. This woman really doesn't give a s..t about her girls, just money and jewellery as it so happens. After being drained with clients and considering an offer from the latter of em', it's great how Molly finally confronts her at the end, before quitting, you almost want to be there with her. The end is very much like the start with Molly cycling home, hypnotic music again (a great New York night shot, stopping on the way to by some flowers. What I love about Working Girls, is it doesn't try to be something it isn't with flashy sets, big stars, or larger that life characters. What we have here is real life. And if you can't accept that, you're probably not gonna like this. Highly recommended.

WORKING GIRLS is the farthest thing from a Hollywood film. One of the oddest, most original, and refreshing films I have ever seen. Stimulating, without feeling pornographic. Lizzie Borden handles the subject-matter well -- in her tender, loving woman-hands. I wish I could get MY HANDS on some of her other films -- BORN IN FLAMES was what I had in mind. There is an excellent chapter on her in John Russo's (book) MAKING MOVIES. WORKING GIRLS will embarrass those who are not comfortable with the darker side of their nature -- and will bore those who desire no substance, just the old in-out. WORKING GIRLS doesn't feel the least bit exploitive. I loved the film, and I wish that Lizzie was still making movies -- movies that could find their way to my local cineplex.

This documentary-like look at the life of a New York City brothel featured several amateur actors and one noteworthy professional: Ellen McElduff, who plays the officious madam. The primary character, "Molly," is attractive, sedate, sensible Louise Smith. The comings and goings of the johns include their personal requests, the most common of which is to meet outside the brothel, which Molly always deftly declines. Richard Leacock, the great documentarian and educator, appears as one of her clients, no doubt an inspiration to Lizzie Borden, who concerned herself with making an honest film about a subject, often glamorized or made maudlin in commercial cinema.