Posted: 04/30/2010

Naked Ambition: An R-Rated Look at an X-Rated Industry

by Michael J. Nicholas

Famed celebrity photographer Michael Grecco, has put together a documentary which takes us inside the ever increasingly popular and lucrative world of the porn industry. ‘Naked Ambition: An R-Rated Look at an X-Rated Industry’, from Lantern Lane Entertainment in association with KHG Documentary Productions, shows all who watches that the modern era of porn is no longer taboo and can be just as glamorous as Hollywood itself.

The documentary covers topics from aspiring starlets to the famed Adult Video News Awards(AVNs), held in Las Vegas every January. With all the hullabaloo and increasing attention the multi-billion dollar industry of porn receives, tickets to the annual AVN event are becoming more and more difficult to obtain. Not only are legends and current stars of the adult movie business in attendance at this award show, so are musicians, Hollywood actors and other famous names who realize this sort of thing is no longer something that has to be kept hush-hush in order to protect one’s career.

Okay, I set the table, now for my thoughts and opinions that you’ve all been waiting for. The movie basically spends a good amount of time following around a former ice skater turned aspiring porn starlet. Sunny Lane suffered a major injury from skating and decided the next best choice for her was the adult film industry. Ms. Lane is a protege of renowned porn legend Ron Jeremy, who has a very minor role in the feature, as does former sex goddess Jenna Jameson who I think is unfortunately unrecognizable nowadays. So, if you’re expecting to see a lot of screen time and interviews from these two legends, you won’t get it. The documentary also tells the tale of porn rookie Joanna Angel as she gets almost as much face time as Sunny Lane. Ms. Angel is a tattooed, goth/rocker starlet with an impressive college education and seems to have a lot more depth to her personality than most women in her industry.

Most of the documentary revolves around a handful of young women vying for a chance to win newcomer of the year award at the annual AVN show. What I don’t like about this ‘documentary’, is that it’s basically just a photographer who went from stills to video and just followed around people from the industry and really didn’t dig that deep into the ins, outs and history of his subject. I know he wanted to keep a positive light on those featured and didn’t want to focus on ‘victims’ of the industry, but Mr. Grecco could of delved into the topics of salary, STD testing, funding, casting, promotion, etc.

Even though the documentary was somewhat enjoyable, it could of been, and had the opportunity to be something greater. Jesse Jane, the new reigning queen of the adult film industry, who had a couple minutes of face time, would of really helped things out had she be given a more important role. It seems that because Michael Grecco is mostly known as being a photographer, it hurt his chances at getting the major stars to participate in one-on-one interviews, although it did seem that his main focus was just to set up photo-ops with them anyway.

Overall, ‘Naked Ambition’ is worth the time spent; if anything, just to see how big the industry has become and it’s ever-growing acceptance with pop-culture and the general public.

‘Naked Ambition: An R-Rated Look at an X-Rated Industry’ is available on DVD and as a hardcover coffee table book.

Michael J. Nicholas - a.k.a. Nicky The Note - reviews, opinions & life lessons.

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