This Girl’s Life

This film features a few days in the life of the Internet’s first supposed porn superstar named Moon (fictitious). Her life is all about having sex and walking around a house full of webcams (kinda like my life but without the sex or the webcams) But what’s this, she’s really a sweet girl inside, taking care of her dad and just trying to get a date in the real world. Sex, talk of sex and sexual escapades ensue…

This movie starts off with an interesting idea (an internet porn star), makes it sexy and voyeuristic for appeal (this works), dramatic so that we will care about its lead character (this doesn’t really work), but doesn’t pull it together all that well and ultimately left me feeling very unfulfilled in terms of its plot or its obvious “message”. In fact, the element of the film which least succeeded in my view was the character, played valiantly by James Woods, portraying the porn actress’ Parkinson’s Disease-ridden father. As the story progressed with the lead girl going through her own day-to-day conflicts, sex-related adventures and dates, it would ultimately switch back to her life with her father and the whole thing would just get weighed down. It’s not so much that the concept of their relationship wasn’t an interesting aspect of the story (it did offer the viewer some perspective about the girl and her choices), but it just wasn’t handled properly with too much emphasis on Woods and his issues, and too much obviousness about it. The film also ended on a somewhat uninspired “secret” that didn’t shock or bring much to my appreciation of the whole by that point. On its own, several scenes in the film worked really well though including one in which four men are brought inside a room to “audition” for the porn actress (free willies all around), and another in which a nasty Michael Rapaport and the lead, not only get hot ‘n really heavy, but also quite aggressive, to the point of extreme discomfort. That scene was very well handled by everyone involved.

I would have liked to have seen more realistic moments like that though (the scene in the AIDS clinic was also very well done), instead of the father’s birthday party or “theories” from many of her friends. All of the actors were also very good including the lead Milla Jovovich lookalike, Juliette Marquis, who for her first starring role, handled herself quite admirably (and I’m not just talking about the scene in which she’s getting doggied and talking to the camera at the same time…now that’s talent!!) and Kip Pardue, who despite winkingly playing a “Hollywood movie actor named Kip” in the film, was actually quite natural and well-rounded. More with him and the lead would also have been nice. Tomas Arana was also great as the sleazy porn operation owner (aren’t they all?), and even provided his character with some depth, not just a one-dimensional portrayal of an a-hole. Rosario Dawson and Isaiah Washington had small cameos in the film as well, while real-life porn actress Cheyenne also tossed a few lines into the mix (shucks…no blowjobs though) In the end, the film is really more of a “slice of life” than anything, with very little direction or meaning, but for what it was, especially in terms of its subject matter and performances (Marquis will surely go places after this), it did an okay job of providing a tinge of insight into the industry, as well as plenty of sex, T&A (yes, even penises, boys and girls) and attention-grabbing scenarious. Oh yeah, I have to admit that it also spit out a few memorable pieces of dialogue like “Women need a reason to cheat while men need a reason not to!” and my personal favorite from the lead porn actress herself, when asked about her favorite position: “A 68. That’s when you go down on me and I owe you one.” Nice! You’re on!!

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian