Thinking XXX

Thinking XXX (2004)

** (out of 4)

Photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders directed this documentary taking a look at various porn stars who show up to be photographed with and without their clothes. Doing the shooting they discuss how they got into the business, their expectations for the future and countless other things. I must say that by the time this documentary was over I was extremely disappointed for a number of reasons but the biggest is that there should and could have been so much more done with it. Greenfield-Sanders released a book with these photos and this "documentary" really just seemed like a promotional piece for people to go out and buy the book. We start off hearing various stories about how these people got into the business and I think even those with the slightest bit of knowledge on porn will already know these stories. We learn that women get paid more than men and if a man really wants to make any cash it has to be in the gay porn industry. We learn about some abuse that goes on and we learn that ladies are often advised to take the show on the road as that's where the cash is. All of these stories have been dealt with in other documentaries so there's nothing new being told here. I'm guessing if you haven't seen other documentaries on the subject then perhaps you'll find this stuff interesting but by the thirty-minute mark I was growing more and more bored with the talk. Also, I do wonder how many actual porn fans are going to care about this book or the stories being told.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders decides to do a photography book starring Porn Stars. First they wear clothes, then they don't. It's hardly earth shattering stuff, but this documentary does unravel some fairly interesting facets of humanity. Just not enough to wish there had been more. The most interesting clips come from porn star couples, as they discuss their very different sex lives. Other stars seem to be in control of their lives, whilst others seem to be in denial. There are also some interesting insights into the business side of porn. As it all comes back to the photography, it's never enough. We get brief snapshots where porn stars take off their layers for a few seconds but then it's over. A good watch, but one which invites more detail.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders wonderful new documentary, Thinking XXX, was made in conjunction with his new book and art exhibition, where he took two portraits of thirty porn stars, one naked and one clothed, both in the same pose. The portraits were published in a large coffee table size book with essays by pop critics to accompany the pictures. The documentary follows the portrait shoot, and allows the large cast of stars to talk about their experiences and thoughts on the industry. The stars talk from experience, while pop culture critics give their own views of the industry. If you have a negative view of the industry, you might have a change of heart after meeting the top stars of the industry. Moral traditionalists would have you believe the porn industry is a brutal, mob driven industry that attracts only the most anti-social individuals. Well, it certainly has a dark side, as one just has to look at the sad fates of Savannah, Bambi Woods, Shauna Grant, and Lisa Deleeuw. However, the stars featured in Thinking XXX prove it is an industry where an ambitious young person can find success, run a business and not wind up damaged. These people are well spoken, sincere, amiable, normal types who just happen to make a living having sex in front of a camera. Yet they have goals and ambitions just like anyone else. Thinking XXX is amazing in that it challenges our notions of glamor. It pierces the veil of an underground industry to show a silver lining in which these not quite celebrities come across as having more charisma than the biggest Hollywood stars. Thinking XXX has a diverse range of performers. The one common thread linking than seems to be that all his subjects are household names in the porn industry. The two stars who come off as the most interesting are Nina Hartley and Sharon Mitchell, who have some surprising things to say about the business. Hartley and Mitchell came into the business decades ago, and there was much more of a stigma attached to the industry. Mitchell went on to earn a PhD and now runs AIM, which is where adult stars routinely go for medical checkups. Many of today's stars come off markedly different than the older, more experienced performers. Two of today's hottest stars Sunrise Adams and Jesse Jane remark that since they grew up in a generation that was so well versed with porn, they viewed adult stars in the same light as they would a major Hollywood celebrity. That's typical for most people in their age bracket. Sunrise was so ecstatic to have done a sex scene with Jameson that she asked people to "smell her face" after her first scene! Jesse Jane does most of her interview naked in a pool. Even by porn standards, this woman just oozes sex and has a body that is almost beyond belief. It's worth mentioning that female stars compromise about 95% of the interview footage for the documentary.

We learn from watching the documentary that porn used to be hard for women. For years the industry was run by men for men and so it was understandable that women would feel threatened by porn, but it seems that more and more these days it is an industry where women are coming out on top. Female porn stars are usually much more highly paid than the men and, at the top end of the market, really do call the shots. Female directors becoming more prevalent, and others even setting up their own companies to produce a more female friendly product. To further emphasize this point adult star Chloe is prominently featured. Her success shows how the industry is changing for the better. She is one of the pioneers of the last decade, when women began to direct porn. Chloe is not augmented with breasts implants; she is not blond. There is nothing false about her, which emphasizes the unmistakably authentic orgasms she has in her videos. Chloe is a small woman, nearly flat-chested; her ability to orgasm has made her one of the most famous porn stars in history. This is an incredibly important evolution in porn. Because she is so good at what she does, not because of what she looks like, she is a superstar

If you want to take a feminist perspective, you would have to say that things have never looked better for the female adult stars after seeing Thinking XXX. Exploitation does still happen however, but this is no longer the norm. I feel that it is a mark of how society has progressed that women are no longer afraid to embrace their sexuality, and have a great many ways to do so. I find quality porn a turn on and feel that women all over the world also benefit from porn either by profiting from its sale or enjoying an improvement their sex lives, so why not seek to eliminate the bad parts rather than attack the industry as a whole? You can love it, or loathe it but there's no way to deny that in a time in which sex is becoming a bigger and bigger part of our society, the porn industry is influencing our culture just as much as any other form of media is, whether that may be the world of music, television, or film. It's worth mentioning that about the same time this documentary premiered on HBO, I saw in of all places a major grocery style chain an issue of FHM with Tera Patrick on the cover. Patrick was the first adult start to ever grace the cover of a mainstream men's magazine It instantly became their highest selling issue ever. I sincerely hope that FHM's decision to feature Patrick on the cover is only the beginning of mainstream America's embracing the performers shown in Thinking XXX as well as their fellow peers in the industry. They sure deserve it.

It is amazing to watch this show and see all of these very popular porn stars being interviewed and photographed out-of-character, as actors rather than characters in a porn video. Any Tera Patrick fan will be amazed to see how wholesome looking she is when she is not in porn makeup and a porn wig. After seeing this you will believe it when you hear that she was a pre-med college student before she started in the biz (it's true).

After seeing the show I bought the book that it is about, "XXX 30 Porn-Star Portraits", and it is as amazing as you'd think. The Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is a great photographer, and these are all great photographs. Also fun area all the essays throughout and the auto-biographical entries in the back.

Porn stars may be odd people, but they are real people, as you will find when if you watch this show and read (and look at) the book.

This film, though not life altering, is fantastic. I mean, it's just an interesting, surprising look at the industry. If you give it a chance, I believe that there is a lot that some of these stars have to say about themselves, the world and the industry. It's not like every last one of these girls and guys are Ivy-League material, but the relative handful in this film as articulate and intelligent.

If you're interested in the sex industry, from a sincere point of view, watch this. Totally worth a viewing, search it, find a way to see it, definitely an eye-opener.

3 1/2 stars