Some Nudity Required

I caught this documentary by chance, and it was an eyeopener into the world of B-Movies. This genre being nothing more than filmsy scripts, mediocre acting, and of course the all important sex(nudity,and all that encompasses) and violence. Some may say that how is that different from a Hollywood movie. I would argue mainly that it is the budget that is different. But apart from that this documentary looks at how hard it is for women particularly to move from the world of showing their body to actual decent to good acting in the mainstream cinema. Anyone who sees it, will think twice when viewing these movies.

Director's look at the B-Movie industry is thought-provoking, at its best, but spends a good deal more time with her own interpretations of her experience than really trying to show us what the industry is like.

Odette Springer is in many ways embarrassed about her involvement in the industry, and attempts to explain both her attraction to such work and the involvement of people in the industry in terms of personal weakness.

A great deal of time is spent making the argument that women are 1) discriminated against based on looks 2) intentionally kept out of good roles and 3) only like the industry if they are mentally disturbed.

This documentary (which watches like a TV movie for Lifetime TV) really, really begs some questions, such as: Did any of the "exploited" women portrayed take any acting classes? Did any of these women explore other, more "tasteful" options like dinner theater?

The underlying, unquestioned premise here is that "Any woman should be able to get tasteful roles which do not require nudity in 'A' grade films." Had the director worked on questioning this a bit (by interviewing women with acting ability or in live theater), this would be a 7. Without ever explaining or questioning that, it is a 5.

Some Nudity Required is one of those documentaries that reveal as much as the person trying to create the documentary as it does the subject. What does it reveal about B movies? Odette Springer's focus is definitely negative about the industry, but it's the words of the B-movie mavens that do the most damage, revealing the rampant and violent mysogyny prevalent among makers of B movies. What does it reveal about Odette? A lot...and proves she has a lot that she has a lot that she wants to let out.

The story of Maria Ford was also telling, and another great reason to see the movie.

Being a fan of typical "bad" movies I was very interested to see this documentary. I have seen numerous of the movies that were featured (I have to admit) but never really thought about the people making the movies. One thing that amazed me was how good the at acting the actors became outside of the movies. Julie Strain displayed more emotion and feelings in the few minutes she was featured than in all of her other movies combined. Of course in those few minutes she showed what a shallow person she is. As most of the directors and producers seem to be. They all seemed very paranoid about their movies being called exploitative.

Overall the movie was quite good. I could have done without the home video of the little girl naked (flashback to molestation of Odette as a child). Also it seemed that the footage of Maria Ford (one of the main interviewees) was overdone. I am a fan of hers but it seems that she was exploited for this film to make it more gritty. Many of the others interviewed didn't see a problem (being more concerned about making money).

7/10

Hack directors/producers like Jim Wynorski, Dave DeCoteau, and Fred Olen Ray have long been guilty of substituting bare breasts for skilled or even competent filmmaking. And the women who own these breasts, either naturally or through silicone enhancement, are no less guilty. Are these women exploited? Yes, probably, but so are the male viewers who waste their money and their Friday nights watching this crap rather than developing relationships with real women. And while Wynorski, Olen Ray et. al. may be laughing all the way to the bank, they're no more likely to win an Academy Award than actresses like Maria Ford. They're equally trapped in a soul-less industry that exploits their dubious talents. But while this documentary preaches about the exploitation of women it nevertheless contains rampant female nudity and appeals to the sort of male viewer who will watch it with the sound down and/or one hand on the fast forward button. It is truly a sad state of affairs that low-budget filmmaking today has become almost completely synonymous with softcore porn, but this hypocritical doc. does little to remedy that situation. I was particularly offended with the way the documentary (or at least some of the interviewees)seems to equate horror/exploitation movies with snuff and sexual sadism. The truth is the"erotic thriller" is the domain of people who don't have the talent to make horror movies yet are a tad too respectable for hardcore "adult" industry. And the less said of the co-director's tastelessly self-indulgent revelations of child sexual abuse the better. Why can't all these self-loathing industry types just find another line of work?