A couple of years ago I was given the opportunity to see Born in Flames, and was completely amazed by a resounding and powerful experimental science fiction film about the issues surrounding feminism both internally and externally. I had never hoped that I would see Born in Flames on DVD until First Run Features released it about a year ago. However, as far as I knew, that was the only film by Lizzie Borden I'd ever get to see. Imagine my surprise and delight, then, when Working Girls suddenly turned up on the rental shelf, also released by First Run Features.
Working Girls can be described as something like "the Office Space of prostitution movies." The characters in this film go to their job, sit in a stuffy room talking, complain about their management (a delightfully prissy and fluffy Madame named Lucy, who was easily one of the strongest points in the movie), and deal with their regular cycle of lonely men and weirdos.
Unfortunately, three major things work against this film. Firstly, both the cinematography and music is very 80s, which both takes away from its timeless feel (something that would be important in a film about women's role in society) and generally looks and sounds awful to contemporary audiences. Secondly, a lot of the acting is for the most part completely atrocious. Some of the actors manage themselves nicely, mostly the women, but for the most part Working Girls barely contains the emotional umph of a bad 80s sitcom. Thirdly, whereas the loose plot of the film was very fitting for most of the movie, the ending was one of those ridiculous institutions that felt like it came right out of either complete laziness to figure out how to wrap things up, or worse, out of some writer's workshop.
It's weird to think of this movie as so half-developed and dated, considering how intelligent Born in Flames is at speaking directly to the issues. Part of the problem is that the dialog these women have can be summed up in a blanket statement of "women's role in society", but despite the education of Molly and the use of different characters as synecdoche for the part of society they represent, this movie has a real austere and clean feel to it that keeps it away from having impact. I do think it's interesting to have a movie about prostitution that doesn't spend a significant portion of the screen time to sexual obsession, and this movie is at least frank and direct about the sexuality. However, the key thing is that it lacks impact and it's message is slightly blurred by the "well, anyone can get out of this because we do have a choice" theme.
--PolarisDiB
Working Girls can be described as something like "the Office Space of prostitution movies." The characters in this film go to their job, sit in a stuffy room talking, complain about their management (a delightfully prissy and fluffy Madame named Lucy, who was easily one of the strongest points in the movie), and deal with their regular cycle of lonely men and weirdos.
Unfortunately, three major things work against this film. Firstly, both the cinematography and music is very 80s, which both takes away from its timeless feel (something that would be important in a film about women's role in society) and generally looks and sounds awful to contemporary audiences. Secondly, a lot of the acting is for the most part completely atrocious. Some of the actors manage themselves nicely, mostly the women, but for the most part Working Girls barely contains the emotional umph of a bad 80s sitcom. Thirdly, whereas the loose plot of the film was very fitting for most of the movie, the ending was one of those ridiculous institutions that felt like it came right out of either complete laziness to figure out how to wrap things up, or worse, out of some writer's workshop.
It's weird to think of this movie as so half-developed and dated, considering how intelligent Born in Flames is at speaking directly to the issues. Part of the problem is that the dialog these women have can be summed up in a blanket statement of "women's role in society", but despite the education of Molly and the use of different characters as synecdoche for the part of society they represent, this movie has a real austere and clean feel to it that keeps it away from having impact. I do think it's interesting to have a movie about prostitution that doesn't spend a significant portion of the screen time to sexual obsession, and this movie is at least frank and direct about the sexuality. However, the key thing is that it lacks impact and it's message is slightly blurred by the "well, anyone can get out of this because we do have a choice" theme.
--PolarisDiB