That's Sexploitation!

MOVIE #1,429 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 03.11.24 Henenlotter’s second documentary is, on the one hand, a much bigger affair (tackling the history of an entire genre) but on the other, it’s a lot smaller, as there’s really only a single talking head (outside of Henenlotter himself): the producer David F. Friedman, who we also saw a lot of in the Hershell Gordon Lewis doc. He's a good resource, one of the best, but I felt like it needed some more voices. The real star of this picture is the collection Henenlotter had access to, which is incredible (all or most of it from the Something Weird archives), from arcade loop proto-pornos to early silent stag films all the up through the dawn of the exploitation era and beyond.

There’s not much editorializing here, although when we reach the height of the “nudie cutie” era, Henenlotter says: “They were the stupidest films on the face of the earth. It’s like we’re watching two alien races [men and women] whirl about each other without ever once connecting.” This point is an interesting one, and vaguely addresses the role of the male gaze in this whole story, which could've been dissected in much more detail, honestly. I don't really wanna dwell on this, though, because it's such an obvious point. I don't know how you can broach it intelligently without coming across as pedantic. As a counterpoint, gay underground cinema is touched on, although briefly. I also think this would have been a stronger documentary if the actual filmmakers were explored more.

There's a numbing effect to seeing this many boobs that diffuses the allure. This is really a historical document in the truest sense: more or less a catalog. There must be 15-60-second clips from over a 100 different movies here. The move from nudies to roughies is presented as a natural progression without getting into the weeds about what this might have meant on a deeper level or ever moralizing. That Friedman sometimes sounds like he's talking about a cattle auction when discussing the actresses is problematic, but maybe this is just another example why there was a need for other voices that we just didn't get. At 135 minutes already, though, I'm not sure how that could have worked either.

So this is an imperfect film but an excellent historical resource. I genuinely think both of these things can be true without belaboring matters.

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This documentary reveals the untold story of American cinema's gloriously sordid cinematic past. It was released on June 25, 2013.