The porn industry is bigger and more accessible than ever. Sites like Twitter are available to children thirteen years and older, but do not sensor their content. From the outside looking in the industry can look glamorous, but those involved know a different side to the monster. Hot Girls Wanted explores the ins and outs of the porn industry and attempts to express how difficult and damaging it can be. Girls like Tressa Silguero, Rachel Bernard, and Lucy Tyler tell their stories and dive deep into the porn industry and do their best to explain what it’s really like.
Just a few years before the release of Hot Girls Wanted, a similar documentary called After Porn Ends was released as a way to explain how mainstream pornstars struggle once the camera is shut off for good. Here, producer Rashida Jones (known for her roles in Parks & Recreation and The Office) attempts to expose the hardships of amatuer, or up and coming, pornstars and detail what their lives are like early on in the industry. Furthermore, Jones, and the rest of the crew, appear to explain to the world that porn is far less charming than what might appear on the surface. As the many stories of these young girls come to light and their struggles are understood, maybe for the first time, they each appear to have one thing in common. While that one thing is unfortunate, it does, to some degree, make it difficult for viewers to appreciate their current struggles.
It appears that nearly every girl featured in Hot Girls Wanted has at some point had a former sexual partner hurt them emotionally. This is disgraceful and the parties involved in hurting these young women should be ashamed of themselves, however, if often appears to be an excuse that each of the interviewees use to explain why they have entered porn. It’s hard, from time to time, to appreciate their stories because they are using individuals, some back in high school, as scapegoats to defend the behavior that even the girls themselves don’t fully approve of. Viewers question whether or not blaming others for their choices is acceptable, and, like me, I would venture to guess that many don’t believe that it’s motive enough to defend those choices. With all of that being said, it feels like Jones, the interviewees, writer Brittany Huckabee, and directors Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus fail to convince viewers that the girls in the film are completely free of guilt.
While the amatuer pornstars should certainly not be made to feel bad for their decisions, it's difficult to agree with everything they claim given the circumstances. With those circumstances leading to their decisions being difficult to appreciate, Hot Girls Wanted fails to present each of the amatuer pornstars in the light that it intended. There are parts of the documentary that certainly intrigue viewers, but it ultimately fails to provide the shock and horror that Jones and the other intended. While I do believe that Hot Girls Wanted is worth watching, don’t expect it to be the groundbreaking documentary that it promises.
Directed by Jill Bauer & Ronna Gradus. Written by Brittany Huckabee. Starring Tressa Silguero, Riley Reynolds, Rachel Bernard, Ava Kelly, Lucy Tyler, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/10
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