Kink (2013)

Overrated

A different way of telling a story

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

I understand that filmmakers are often forced to walk a line between the reality of the subject matter and entertaining an audience, so I can sympathize with the rubbernecking feel of the coverage, however it didn't really provide a real context for all of the kinky sex we were seeing beyond some talking heads who, after a while came across more like they were rationalizing rather than explaining.SPOILER, PERHAPS: Those interviews may have come off differently were it not for the final interview with a female employee. At first she came off like she was fine with what she did, but then became overwrought and tearful, talking about her work "disgracing" her family and describing everyone who worked for Kink as though they were broken toys. This emotional interview undid all of the thoughtful insights of earlier interviews and made them seem somehow false. That one emotional outburst undid everything that preceded it. Its placement at the very end seems suspect, as if it was what the filmmakers wanted the viewer to take away.

This film gives a surprisingly lucid view of what goes on at Kink.com studios. Even more interesting are the interviews with the staff and the actors, who describe their motivations and what it's like to work in the BDSM porn business. Actors for the most part don't stay for longer than a year or two, and many profess to be exploring an inner need in what they do.There are a enough explicit sex scenes to give a feel for what goes into the staging. A given scene may change drastically if an actor has misgivings about the sexual demands of the script.The overall impression is of a business run in a professional manner by decent, reasonably sympathetic people who happen to find themselves or at least their jobs to be on the kinky side of the sexual spectrum.It's no surprise that this documentary will upset some people. As one of the participants in the film notes, sexual fantasies and taboos are all over the map. The tacit message is that you're free to judge, even if it's pointless to do so.

I am not personally aroused by BDSM experiences but I know people who are into that kink. I watched this documentary to learn more about it and try to understand it. This film shows all the complicated aspects involved in making porn about this particular kink and shows how a porn company operates when it wants to work with the people doing these acts on film in a respectful way. That was all very interesting. I would have never known about some of these things so I feel much more well-informed after seeing it.The film does not really get into the psychology of people who are into this kink, so if that's what you are looking for, you'll have to go elsewhere. But if you are basically curious about how pornography is created and how BDSM porn in particular is done, this is a good introduction. Be warned that there are many graphic scenes that are quite intense, so if you are not into this kink, you might need to fast forward....

This dreary self-portrait of a nasty little industry trading in sadomasochistic pornography would have us believe that the desire to abuse, degrade, and physically harm other human beings (both men and women) is a wonderful and creative form of sexual expression. The talking heads that espouse this wisdom conveniently happen to be the very people who are making money from selling realistic depictions of hardcore sexual abuse online. There are a few revealing scenes in the film -- one in which monthly revenues are discussed (they are revealed to be surprisingly small, which leads me to believe that the audience for this type of entertainment is similarly small); another in which an honest model shares her real thoughts about the work she is doing. But for those few glimpses of reality, the rest of this is just a voyeuristic look at actual hardcore scenes being filmed, with the usual portentous claptrap being spouted on the soundtrack about how "into it" the models are, just dying for a good hard beating, the lot of them. If you opt to watch this ugly piece of work for the voyeuristic aspects of it, I suggest you do so with your remote in one hand and your thumb poised above the fast forward button. Sex doesn't get any more boring than this. In fact, this really isn't sex at all, and the poor souls who think it is would be better served by therapy than by a film celebrating misogyny, authored by ghouls who profit from its distribution.