If all of the women woke up tomorrow and stopped doing porn, there wouldn’t be any porn anymore!
The world of pornography is full of victims, stories of drug abuse, rapes, and broken dreams. There are quite a few people that make a lot of money on it though. Whether you want are a fan or an opponent, anybody can see how difficult that life must be. There are “fans” that may recognize you in real life. Many doors in life may become welded shut once these films come to light. Real relationships may be impossible.
Unfortunately, dealing with this lifestyle has led many people to a life of addiction and self hatred. The adoration of one’s body and the lack of interest in one’s persona seems to leave a void, and that void is filled with many detrimental things.
Lucky Bastard explores this world, and what lies beneath is much more interesting than what is on the surface. It is a found footage film that manages to write out found footage flaws, but it doesn’t leave us with much suspense.
After being shown a crime scene, Lucky Bastard‘s first shot is a familiar one in pornography. Casey (Catherine Annette) is on the leather couch, and a man comes in with a camera. She talks dirty to the camera, and they move the movie into the bedroom. In a series of confusing twists, porn star Ashley Saint (Betsy Rue) bursts in to save her from the men. Ashley is then attacked, and we are introduced to porn producer/director Mike (Don McManus).
Mike runs quite a few porn websites (which span many different genres). Ashley has made a film for all of them except for his Lucky Bastard site. On Lucky Bastard, normal men get to fulfill their fantasies and do a scene with a porn starlet. After talking Ashley into it (She doesn’t work with amateurs.), they pick out their average guy: Dave G. (Jay Paulson).
Mike is not the easiest person to work with, and he berates everybody he interacts with (including girlfriend Casey who is being groomed as a starlet). He immediately berates Dave upon meeting him, we see just how odd the porn world can be. Dave and Ashley get slightly frisky in the backseat but Dave quickly ends it when Ashley touches him. After a series of faux pas, Ashley senses there is something seriously wrong with Dave (but Mike keeps waving cash in front of her).
Dave’s scene is far from stellar, and Ashley refuses to even be in the same room with him. She’s been in an abusive relationship before, and she sees the signs in Dave. While the rest of the crew views Dave as innocuous, he surprises them with a fury of horror and sickness they could not imagine.
Lucky Bastard thrives on looking past the surface. Ashley is street smart, and knows how to change for her situation. It’s what makes her an “actress” (her dream). Casey is not happy in her role, but is too cowardly to speak up. Mike is a dictator, but the rest of the crew seem to hold misogynistic tendencies toward Casey and Ashley. Dave is quite innocent looking, and everybody mistakes this for weakness. Despite being so open on the surface, each character hides a ton of development right under the surface.
The film is found footage, and this works for the most part. The house is equipped with cameras so the characters aren’t carrying them around the whole time. I like that, but it also led me to wonder who edited all the footage together (kind of like Paranormal Activity 2). It was a great idea, and one I’ve seen pitched before (but never executed).
Lucky Bastard is a good watch, but it provokes opposite reactions in your head. Nudity and sex are frequent throughout, but it’s never in a manner that gets you….too going. There’s something slightly off from it, and I believe that was director Robert Nathan‘s intention. The film isn’t quite a slasher, and it isn’t quite a character study. Suspense is null as we are shown all the victims almost immediately.
It lets you see what’s on the surface while trying to hide what’s really going on.
Lucky Bastard is definitely worth a watch. The acting is good, and the strange world of pornography is highlighted (not in a good or a bad way, but) in an realistic way. It’s a strange world that makes for strange bedfellows. Check it out.