MONEY SHOT: THE PORNHUB STORY (B+) - Netflix brings a surprisingly thorough and balanced approach to the tension, in the world of online porn, between cracking down on victims and inhibiting honest sex workers. In a perky hour-and-a-half, director Suzanne Hillinger juggles a lot of facts and personalities and weaves them into a coherent and compelling narrative.
Pornhub is the Walmart of porn, and the main rub, so to speak, began when an advocacy group and a New York Times columnist convinced Mastercard and Visa to halt its dealings with the site. It forced Pornhub to jettison millions of unverified uploads (thus, presumably, eliminating a lot of illegal content), but that move also punished small-time verified users, who lost a valuable source of quick and easy income.
The film skillfully sways back and forth in its sympathies, with the sex workers probably getting most of the benefit of the doubt. But the crusaders against child pornography and sex trafficking (who have roots in prudish Christian activism) make a strong case too. In the middle is Noelle Perdue, a former Pornhub employee, who comes off as a wise insider and an expert able to juggle all the nuances here.
The other talking heads are knowledgeable, articulate and at times rather entertaining. What could have been a throwaway and sleazy presentation is instead a meaty examination of a topic that's much more intriguing than it looks.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF FENTANYL (B) - This PBS documentary about a safe-shoot-up clinic for drug addicts in Vancouver could use a little less fly-on-the-wall edginess and a little more context, but it nonetheless is effective at offering a sobering glimpse of a ragtag group of people trying to prevent overdoses and save lives.
Newcomer Colin Askey embeds with the crew of workers and volunteers -- many of them in recovery themselves -- at the Overdose Prevention Society, a storefront in the city's Eastside neighborhood, as they perform Job-like work tending to addicts looking for a fix. At any time an overdose can occur, and the team has Narcan at the ready.
We watch one man make strides with his sobriety, but the focus is on the manager, Ronnie, who wearily soldiers on after years in the urban trenches. The hirsute bear of a man is lovingly called Narcan Jesus, and he provides the film with an ending that is both hopeful and heartbreaking.
But Askey does not deify anyone here. You realize that this is an uphill battle, a blip in the wave of fentanyl deaths sweeping across North America. These lives are fragile, and don't beat yourself up if a thought flashes through your mind about how and whether we go all out to rescue these lost souls.
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