Louis Theroux: Twilight of the Porn Stars

This documentary's true value lies in a line delivered by a porn producer. It succinctly explains what porn and porn actors are. He says, "Porn stars are sexual athletes. They do on film extreme sexual things that you would not do at home.". Therein the mystery, even wonder, of pornography is explained and brought into the real world.

Just as sporting athletes do wondrous things that most of us can't or won't, the same goes for the porn actors of the world.

Well done porn purveyor. Your astute observation is all we need to know to understand the business.

More than anything Louis himself says here.

Louis Theroux's 'Twilight of the Porn Stars' picks up from where he left off exploring the industry in the late 90's. Initially highlighting a valid point of how the internet and piracy changed everything among other tidbits. Ultimately there's a nice tone, pace here but you don't learn anything new about porn during a breezy 60 minute joyride.

Strip away the fantasy and it's a business about money which people do for a number of reasons. A common misconception that it's easy work is dispelled (again). Questions are posed why people involved in sex work try to form real life relationships bucking common sense. Louis has numerous spots where he talks about the weird sometimes difficult balancing act on & off camera. For the answers he receives there's professional and then there's an avoidance of reality.

Jon Dough's death (suicide) is brought up since he previously spoke to him. One voice says it's due to lost revenue, another closer to the man says it was a crushing drug addiction. Louis revisits with some old faces & meets new ones. Performance issues, love, pay, the future come up amongst topics. Kagney Linn Karter presents a twisted picture, Tommy Gunn speaks from the heart.

Much like a series called 'After Porn Ends' there's no shocking or deeply insightful revelations. If you watch porn and know the tiniest about the business, it's old hat. If you like Louis Theroux this is a comfortable view akin to talking to a good friend about a subject that interests you. Nothing super deep but it will maintain your interest.

Back in the late 90's Louis Theroux was doing his Weird Weekends shows which basically saw him doing his "innocent abroad" act within a series of strange worlds or professions. On one of these films he explored the world of pornography by following a couple of actors within what was then a boom industry. Over a decade later the internet and an abundance of free pornography has seen the bottom fall out of sales to a certain extent – a fact not helped that even those opposed to piracy of music because it hurts the artists, tend not to have that same attitude when it comes to pornography. Theroux decides to revisit the industry and in particular those he met the first time, even though one of them took his own life some years before.

It is quite interesting to watch this film to see the change that has occurred, although not so much in the way that the film proposes. The actual look at the industry is really no different from before and there isn't really insight beyond a few words about how the recession etc has affected the world, but the change that is interesting is Theroux himself. The clips from the first film show him as eager and less subtle than now, but also more interested in the detail of the world. Now in this film the better moments come because Theroux is pushing the hearts of the people a bit more, even if he could have done it more. In terms of the industry the film has little to say apart from the usual discussion of sexual acts that serves to highlight how strange it is to do this for a living and it doesn't really produce anything of interest in that regard.

Where it does work though is with a couple of people in particular. Tommy Gunn is the best of them because he is at a point where he is being introspective and it would have been a better film to try and focus on him more than a couple of giggling starlets just starting out. Similarly there are a couple of people who simply are included to say the obvious (about not wanting family to do the job) or to back up stereotypes (several girls are included simply to giggle and talk about their 10-year plan to get rich and leave the business). Again these topics are well covered in other films and it would have been so much better to have give Gunn more of the film than he had – everything he did and said was colourful, grounded in honesty and ever so slightly pained. He is a great character and he also helped in other ways because during these sections Theroux felt less manipulative or tricky and it did feel like an honest chat.

Sadly we have too much other stuff to do and some of it doesn't add much. It is interesting (and a little amusing) to see JJ after so many years, but it doesn't do anything other than just join the dot from the first film. Likewise although it is tragic that John Doe committed suicide, there isn't a great deal that gets said on it given how little of the film it takes up – it would have been better to just drop both of these bits and structure the film better. It is still an interesting little film though and Theroux gets some good chats from people, but to be a better film it should have focused more closely on those happier to open up – in particular Gunn, who is fascinating and very human.