Hellen
I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Aubrey Hackett
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Marva
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Greg Webster
Over a dozen adult entertainment industry titans are interviewed for the documentary, including Asia Carrera, Nina Hartley, Mary Carey, Houston, Randy West, John Leslie, Amber Lynn, and Seka. If you're looking for something celebratory of the adult entertainment industry, go elsewhere. Dark and gritty at times, it's far from the most flattering look at the industry. Curious about the film and its sudden surge of popularity on Netflix, Poguide.com the director, Bryce Wagoner, to discuss why adult film starlets bow out of the business and end their careers. It's a complicated process with no easy individual answer. In short, Wagoner declares the age of the porn-star to be dead. "To be frank, you used to be able to have a relationship with these people over a number of years. Now it's 30, 40, 50 times a year you're going to see this person. You wouldn't want to see that over five years. And then audiences get tired of them and they're disposed of.
John Nail (ascheland)
Changing careers is never easy, but it's even harder when your previous job includes starring in movies with titles like "Sorority Sex Kittens 3" and "Backstage Sluts," and doing anal is listed as a special skill. Bryce Wagoner's documentary, "After Porn Ends," interviews a variety of ex-porn stars to find out how they transitioned from adult video stardom to more mainstream lives. Real estate seems to be the preferred profession for a lot of them, though none of the women who went into that field—Houston, Raylene, Amber Lynn—stayed in it. Asia Carrera became a stay-at-home mom, while Crissy Moran and Shelley Lubben became born-again-Christians, renouncing their porn pasts. Self-employment is the easier path to building a life outside of porn: Randy West became a semi-pro golfer; the late John Leslie was a musician and painter (a pretty good one, too); and, perhaps the most interesting career switch, Tyffany Million (a.k.a. Sandra Margot) became a P.I. and bounty hunter. Seka is self-employed, but earns money from her website, capitalizing on her porn fame. Mary Carey used her porn notoriety to get some D-list recognition on reality shows and a couple publicity-grabbing runs for governor of California.Though "After Porn Ends" is fascinating, many of the stories start to sound alike. For the women, the narrative usually involves running away from an abusive family and battling drug and alcohol problems. For the men it's often a less complicated "Can you believe they PAY ME to have sex with all these women?" (Richard Pacheco recounts how he was contemplating studying to become a Rabbi when he was offered a part in a porn film. "It wasn't a tough decision," he says.) Though a good number of the former sex stars are fairly well-grounded – notably Pacheco, Leslie, Seka, Million – there is, predictably, a lot of sadness here. The pain is not always explicitly detailed and seldom explored, but it's usually visible. Just look at the eyes. Lubben, whose videography is so scant it barely justifies her inclusion in this documentary, and Moran seem to have psychological scars that go beyond their porn careers—scars that a devotion to God hasn't fully healed. As porn legend Nina Hartley observes: "A lot of people who are in porn have no business being in it." Besides the always enjoyable Hartley (I regret that her response to suggestions she enter politics can't be quoted here), former porn blogger Luke Ford and adult industry fixture William Margold offer insight to the pitfalls of life after porn. One of those pitfalls, it seems, is dealing with men like Ford and Margold, both of whom make it clear they don't have a high opinion of women in the industry (men in the X-biz are cool, though). Ford refers to women in porn as "prostitutes" and "hookers," and while starring in porn is similar, Ford's disdain is disingenuous. Margold at least acknowledges the hypocrisy of porn consumers looking down on adult video stars, but otherwise he's a Hawaiian shirt-wearing stereotype of a sleazy flesh peddler.Director Wagoner himself offers little insight, letting his subjects speak for themselves. On the surface this hands-off approach is a positive thing, preventing any moralizing or self-conscious sniggering, but there are several instances where I wished he'd asked follow-up questions, like when Lubben talks about how she and the man she eventually married got high on meth and discussed the bible(!), or when Mary Carey, the most vapid of the ex-porn stars, mentions that if she returned to porn she would, eventually, do a scene with a black man, seemingly implying an interracial scene is only a notch above gonzo porn.As other reviewers have mentioned, making a documentary about the lives of retired porn stars is so obvious it's amazing it hasn't been done before. Though Wagoner does a respectable job with "After Porn Ends," it's hardly definitive. There's room for this subject to be done again.
oscar-35
*Spoiler/plot- After Porn ends, 2010. A documentary produced by a porn producer/director/actor that tries to explore and visit porn performers of the past asking them about their experiences, regrets, and future. Many academics and spiritual leaders are consulted for their interpretation on the many pron stars interview clips.*Special Stars- Mary Carey, Asia Carrera, Luke Ford, Nina Hartley, John Leslie, Amber Lynn, Houston, Seka, Raylene.*Theme- The sex for money trade is seldom beneficial to most people involved in it.*Trivia/location/goofs- Documentary, produced by a 'many decades' porn individual.*Emotion- This film is just more present day 'Reality TV' exploitation motivation and content. I was disappointed and hoping that their would be more non-porn academics speaking here on these matters. By interviewing the porn stars now, you seldom get an honest answer to even the most investigative questions. What I saw in this film (that was my questionable conclusion from the film's beginning) you hear adults giving rationalizations for their bad behavior or "Sour grapes". You hear some honest regret. You see how some people have a harder acceptance of life's 'learning curve' with the sex industry. Most, almost 98% regret their time and wasted efforts in porn. I don't see why they couldn't make better choices for their lives from the beginning. Any industry that equates people's self-worth with sex, drugs, and money should be a red-flag for all to keep away from. The film was a disappointment.
marys1000
I found the topic interesting and think it was great that someone finally did a somewhat better job at the topic. It was very passive voice, no questions were asked, there were no interviews, just subjects talking, telling the story. Which was very humanizing but not as informative. I wonder why all the men subjects had been out of porn for so long. Surely there are younger men who have left porn. The industry has changed a lot. Thought their experiences weren't quite as relevant. Of course the bottom line is.....can you ever get a handle on how porn performers really feel about what they do or did? Would they tell the whole truth even if they could?
