The Life is one of the most inexplicable films I've ever watched. I not only can't imagine what the filmmakers were trying to do, I can't understand how they thought what they did do made any sense at all.
This is a movie about whoredom and all its many flavors. It's about 65% documentary (or pseudo-documentary) and 35% fictional story. The alleged documentary footage is of prostitutes, man-whores, johns, pimps, madams, porn stars and porn directors. The fictional story is about Rebecca (Denise Richards), a college student going for her PHD who's running out of money when she discovers her neighbor, Adriana (Daryl Hannah), is a prostitute and considers that line of work as a way to solve her financial problems.
I'm not entirely sure the documentary stuff is on the up and up because while it looks and sounds like the real stories of real sex workers, why in the world would you take those revealing and disturbing words and splice them together with a generic sex thriller you can find on late night cable? The film also seems to sometimes be oblivious or indifferent to how sad and pathetic most of the whores, whore-users and whoremongers it features, yet at other times seems to be self-consciously exploiting them. We hear awful stories about the lives of prostitutes but we also get lots of naked women on screen in deliberately provocative poses. If I had to bet, I'd say that it is real documentary interviews, just with a lot of show biz slathered over them.
I think that because the supposed whores who talk about themselves and their business are mostly unattractive skanks. The few johns interviewed all appear genuinely socially inept and the porno folks spotlighted are just sleazy enough, but not so screwed up that you can't understand how they get through the day. If those folks are actors, they all deserve Academy Awards.
The story of Rebecca and Adriana, as I mentioned, is like one of those late night Skinemax movies that everybody knows about but no one ever admits to watching, except it's shrunk down to about 30 minutes long and neither Hannah or Richards gets nude. It's impossible for me to conceive of what the filmmakers thought it was going to add to the film. It's not even like Richards and Hannah are big enough stars that putting them on the DVD cover, which they are, is going to drum up any significant sales.
This film does have a lot of arty editing throughout it - images morphing into each other, the whores and others are interviewed in front of a green screen and different backgrounds are thrown up behind them, the interviews and intercut as though the prostitutes were talking to each other - but these techniques are used over and over and over. What was sort of interesting the first time is boring by the 5th time.
I'm not sure why anyone would want to make a film like this or why anyone would want to watch it. It doesn't tell you anything about prostitution that dozens of TV news segments haven't before, it has no real point of view or perspective on whoring that it wants to share with the audience and the fictional portions are empty of any possible entertainment.
But I guess if you want to see some skanky ho's and point and laugh at Denise Richards as she tries to pass herself off as a 24 year old student going for her doctorate in anthropology, this is the only movie I know of where you can do both.
This is a movie about whoredom and all its many flavors. It's about 65% documentary (or pseudo-documentary) and 35% fictional story. The alleged documentary footage is of prostitutes, man-whores, johns, pimps, madams, porn stars and porn directors. The fictional story is about Rebecca (Denise Richards), a college student going for her PHD who's running out of money when she discovers her neighbor, Adriana (Daryl Hannah), is a prostitute and considers that line of work as a way to solve her financial problems.
I'm not entirely sure the documentary stuff is on the up and up because while it looks and sounds like the real stories of real sex workers, why in the world would you take those revealing and disturbing words and splice them together with a generic sex thriller you can find on late night cable? The film also seems to sometimes be oblivious or indifferent to how sad and pathetic most of the whores, whore-users and whoremongers it features, yet at other times seems to be self-consciously exploiting them. We hear awful stories about the lives of prostitutes but we also get lots of naked women on screen in deliberately provocative poses. If I had to bet, I'd say that it is real documentary interviews, just with a lot of show biz slathered over them.
I think that because the supposed whores who talk about themselves and their business are mostly unattractive skanks. The few johns interviewed all appear genuinely socially inept and the porno folks spotlighted are just sleazy enough, but not so screwed up that you can't understand how they get through the day. If those folks are actors, they all deserve Academy Awards.
The story of Rebecca and Adriana, as I mentioned, is like one of those late night Skinemax movies that everybody knows about but no one ever admits to watching, except it's shrunk down to about 30 minutes long and neither Hannah or Richards gets nude. It's impossible for me to conceive of what the filmmakers thought it was going to add to the film. It's not even like Richards and Hannah are big enough stars that putting them on the DVD cover, which they are, is going to drum up any significant sales.
This film does have a lot of arty editing throughout it - images morphing into each other, the whores and others are interviewed in front of a green screen and different backgrounds are thrown up behind them, the interviews and intercut as though the prostitutes were talking to each other - but these techniques are used over and over and over. What was sort of interesting the first time is boring by the 5th time.
I'm not sure why anyone would want to make a film like this or why anyone would want to watch it. It doesn't tell you anything about prostitution that dozens of TV news segments haven't before, it has no real point of view or perspective on whoring that it wants to share with the audience and the fictional portions are empty of any possible entertainment.
But I guess if you want to see some skanky ho's and point and laugh at Denise Richards as she tries to pass herself off as a 24 year old student going for her doctorate in anthropology, this is the only movie I know of where you can do both.