Starring: Gina DePalma, Skylar Cruz, Pearl Callahan, Erin Marxx
Director: James Johnson
What is described as an inside look into the lives of eleven American sex workers is not exactly what I anticipated. If you are looking for a film that will take you inside the inner workings of the industry, you just set yourself up for disappointment. You’re not going to get any salacious details here. What I was hoping to be a behind the scenes look at different workers and the different types of work in the sex trade is nonexistent. You won’t find out about the element of human trafficking, you won’t find out about the differences between a high end escort and a street worker. No strip club inner workings, no Internet hookups, No craigslist ads, No Massage Parlors, Sex dungeons etc.
Rather you get intimate yet unrevealing exposes.
From the title which tries to church up the industry by referring to the girls as Courtesans I should have gathered that this isn’t the type of film that is looking to shed insight into the world’s oldest profession. Rather it looks to humanize the woman and share their back story, with a strong female empowerment spin. Most but not all had a rough upbringing and got into the business for the easy money and to feel empowered, nothing we haven’t seen before.
Courtesans is made all that much more awkward by Star/Producer Kristen DiAngelo featuring herself as interviewer and at times the interviewee, constantly imposing herself on the screen rather than being a third party documenting. Her conversations with Pearl are more akin to two friends forcing themselves to reminisce about things each other has already known for a very long time, rather than opening up for the first time to one another.
Courtesan’s looks to show that regardless of occupation the women are just like any other working woman, with feelings and families with the only difference being their form of employment.
Being able to take one of the most misconstrued and fascinating occupations and strip it of anything remotely sexy or exciting is mind boggling to me. There is compelling drama in the sex trade just not in American Courtesans.
Grade – 65
This is what you want from American Courtesans.
This is what you get from American Courtesans
