Save your money for something good and enjoyable

A Masterpiece!

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

As a sexual educator and BDSM educator and personal Dom myself, as well as a personal fan of James Franco's, I was delighted to see this movie in the library. However when I watched it I was appalled from the beginning, and continued to be until about 2/3rds of the way through when I couldn't continue watching. This movie can hardly be called a documentary because it is NOT educational. Nor is it a documentary about the kink community and BDSM. It is a documentary about a pornography company that films BDSM torture scenes. And from the very beginning you will see the basic rules of safe, sane and consensual being broken by this company. You will watch models have things done to them that they are explicitly saying they DO NOT want done to them. And worst of all you will be forced to watch sexual torture that you do not know you are signing up to watch and makes you feel that your own consent is being violated. This film is nothing more than the filming of the filming of hardcore torture and rape pornography, with some commentary from the pornographers, that again is non-educational in nature, and is just their own personal thoughts and opinions and feelings and such. The movie teaches you absolutely NOTHING about BDSM and Kink Culture, lifestyle or practices. It seems as though its main goal is to shock and appall, which it will for any sensible person who doesn't know that this is not really a documentary, so much as a filming of torture pornography...in which the people are actually being tortured since they aren't even consenting to everything that is being done. This movie is a great disservice to the kink community. Far worse than 50 shades of grey. I never thought I would say this but shame on you James Franco.

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.

Having some friends that are into BDSM I've seen and read a bit about the subculture. With that in mind I was excited to see this documentary. While technically OK(lighting sound etc) the film was a bore. First, it's not really a film about BDSM, it's a film about a company that makes BDSM movies for public consumption with actors who aren't all in the BDSM community. Even with that caveat there was a rich opportunity to explore this interesting subculture through the lens of the corporation. But what we get instead is interviews with employees, many of whom are far from articulate or perhaps have reservations about being nuanced about something their paycheck depends on. No interviews with consumers, no history of the industry to set the stage for Kinks place in time. No discussion of San Francisco as a unique place that allows a business like Kink to thrive, let alone discuss the neighborhood the armory is in and it's effects. This was little more than a milquetoast ad for a million dollar corporation. It's a shame considering the wealth of material the director could have used to make an insightful film.

This is just another in a line of documentaries that try to explore the world of BDSM and end up showing us a bunch of people who come off as inarticulate and surprisingly unaware of the origins of their non-mainstream proclivities, but fails to render any real insight. What we are left with are interviews with a bunch of folks who seem to be ambling through life trying to convince themselves that this lifestyle has validity, but not really buying it. There is the Gay director who fantasized about the high school football players and the Dominatrix who worries about verbalizing her lifestyle to her children and others who indulge, but come off as disingenuous to a fault and unable to articulate the true nature of this lifestyle. One would think that any director/producer worth their salt wouldn't settle for superficiality, but instead would want to dig deeper. But, then again, this is James Franco we are talking about. A walking, breathing avatar of why some actors should stay in front of the camera.