THE GIRL NEXT DOOR A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
"I never had anything I was good at," says Stacy Valentine about her growing up. Everyone wants to be good at something. It's human nature. Eventually, Stacy, the fascinating subject of Christine Fugate's THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, did find something at which she excelled. It's an activity practiced with pleasure by most of the world's adult population -- sex.
But, unlike most of us, Stacy found a way to make a living at it. She is what is euphemistically called "in the business," specifically, "in the adult entertainment industry." She makes a living starring in videos that people, mainly men, watch in the comfort of their homes.
As soon as most people hear the subject of the story, which Fugate carefully filmed herself over a two-year period, their minds are already closed. Most viewers are ready for a documentary that will ridicule Stacy, or at the very least, patronize and marginalize her. Americans stand foursquare behind their movies' right to splatter people's brains all over the ceiling, awarding stars, like Bruce Willis, millions of dollars to do exactly that. But, sex is another matter entirely. Porn stars are routinely detested by the media and the public.
The most shocking part of the documentary is how Stacy really does seem like the innocent girl next door. As Producer Adam Berns, who was at our screening, so aptly put it, "she is basically a very normal person. She isn't a whack job."
Good documentaries make you think, and this got me to thinking about the parallels with another movie, WITHOUT LIMITS, based on the life of the famous runner Steve Prefontaine. One of the most gruesome parts of that movie was when we see him pushing himself so hard in the service of his sport that he turns his feet into bloody pieces of raw meat. He knew a runner's career is short so he always pushed himself to a limit way past what most people would be willing to endure.
So it is with Stacy. As we see in some hard-to-watch footage, Stacy has surgery after surgery to mold her body into her ever-changing version of perfection. Her breasts, lips, thighs, hips, you name it, are put under the surgical scalpel and suction device. Berns says that Stacy, who loves watching herself on screen, cannot stomach these scenes and has vowed never to have such plastic surgery again. Like a runner, the life of a porn star doesn't last long so Stacy pushes herself in ways most people would never consider. Then again, traditional Hollywood stars have been known to invest quite a bit in such reconstructive surgery.
The movie, however, isn't some dry compendium of talking heads followed by carefully covered porn scenes. This sexually explicit, but not graphic, movie is extremely funny, thanks to the Fugate's approach and choice of subjects. Stacy's mother and stepfather, for example, who support her career but have never seen her videos, are a comedy duo, as they talk about their daughter and about themselves.
We find that the carefully controlled filming of pornographic movies is not without hilarious incidents. One producer has a man with a back-up organ in case the organ of the male lead fails. When the male lead disappears, she is left with nothing to film. Her backup doesn't have a suitable body, just an organ. In another scene we hear how the director has the male lead count off, "one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, etc." so that his orgasm is precisely timed. And the director barks out orders to his camera operators about keeping everything in focus, as the stars are faking great passion.
Stacy's arc in the film has a certain predictability. At first she genuinely believes that she is in it because she loves sex so much, and she is ready to criticize many of her fellow stars for just being in it for the money. Eventually, her enthusiasm wanes as her income increases and as she becomes burnt-out. By the end, she says that she's ready to abandon it all for another career entirely.
Like a roman candle, Stacy shoots for her star and reaches it. It is a star that most of us would never want to aim for, and on her descent, it becomes clear that Stacy is beginning to harbor doubts as to whether she really wanted it in the first place.
THE GIRL NEXT DOOR runs 1:22. It is not rated but would be an R for strong sexual content and language and would not be appropriate for those under 19.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com
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