REVIEW - 9 to 5: Days in Porn (2008)

9 to 5: Days in Porn

Germany - 2008

Directed by - Jens Hoffmann

Starring - Otto Bauer, Audrey Hollander, Belladonna, Jim Powers

Color / 95 Min / NR

Sex sells. The adult entertainment industry is more powerful than it has ever been. The porn business routinely squashes the music industry when it comes to sales and gross revenue. Porn stars are slowly but surely becoming more noticeable and dare I say, accepted (?), in certain parts of mainstream culture. And we can't forget to mention that bugbear in the room, the internet, which has played such a pivotal role in porn's rise to prominence. It's not unfair to say that a lot of people around all parts of the globe enjoy their smut from time to time. Most won't admit to looking at it. Bare asses and titties flopping around the screen are still very much a taboo, especially in the more heavily religious parts of the world. While I personally don't wish to egg on *that* discussion, I will say this for myself: I find the porno biz extremely fascinating on a number of different levels, not simply because it makes good spank material (though I would never deny porn's arousal factor).

Just who aspires to fuck on camera? What are their family lives like? What kind of person choses to go to film school and then turn their back on potential mainstream jobs to become a renegade director of skin flicks? What of the editors? The grips? The sound and lighting people who ply their trade in porn? Is it just an out for those who can't find any other work? The lure of big money? Or does one consciously make the decision to work in this rather seedy industry?

German filmmaker Jens Hoffman attempts to answer some of these questions concerning those involved in this 'hush-hush' industry in 9 to 5: Days in Porn. Hoffman spent three years collecting footage for this documentary on both sides of the Atlantic, primarily following ten different individuals who work, or used to work, in the skin trade. The film makes for an interesting expose on the business, shedding new light on the performer's 'regular' lives away from the cameras whilst also bringing to attention some of the mostly unseen men and women who work behind the scenes as directors, producers, or agents.

So, the next time you're about to spank it to an anal sex scene, keep the poor production assist who has to clean the shit from Sophie Dee's ass in mind, won't you?

Let's backtrack a moment. My more perverted brethren (hello my friends!) are probably wondering right now how this movie rates on the titillation scale. It doesn't. Not really. If you regularly, or even semi-regularly, watch porno, you're not going to see anything that will shock you or have you instantly shuffling knuckles. That's not to say there isn't any nudity - there's plenty. 9 to 5 has its share of exposed breasts, asses, the occasional glimpse of a ding-dong, or a girl's face or chest (or sometimes both) spattered with goo after the money shot, yet these shots aren't filmed in the same style as the live-action cartoon antics of a porno film would be shot. What you see are real, raw, candid glimpses of adult entertainment performers going about their jobs, no exploitative low camera angles of butt holes necessary. Granted, you will get to see a few snippets of humping every now and then, but it's Skinemax level stuff, meaning no actual penetration is seen. Say a prayer beforehand if you're prone to blushing easily. It's a documentary after all. It's 'educational'.

Part of me expected to see one of two scenarios play out when I watched 9 to 5. Either Hoffman created a fluff piece making the porn business out to be glitz and glamor with lots of beautiful people and fabulous, opulent lifestyles (see the Pornucopia series or Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy), or Hoffman takes on the mantle of moral crusader and paints a dismally dark picture of porn and shows us all the dirt under the fingernails of everyone involved. Surprisingly, we get neither. 9 to 5 is very much your typical 'fly on the wall' doc, and in some ways this actually damages the film's watchability. There are some serious pacing issues to be had. In between lingering shots of traffic and city skylines, the viewer is made to bear witness to quite a lot of inane chatter, in addition to some very lengthy segments of film where performers are just sitting around a porn shoot waiting to get their fuck on in front of camera. The vignettes that take place in the Czech Republic also left me cold (and not just because they were obviously filmed mid-winter). Perhaps it was a language barrier issue making it more difficult to get the story from the key players there, but Hoffman seemed to pull back even further on his foray into the central European porn scene. The only thing I really took away from that portion of the film was that Euro porn has even less time for a 'story' in their hardcore flicks than we do in the States nowadays.

A hefty portion of the film's running time is dedicated to Hoffman's journey into Porn Valley (aka the San Fernando Valley) in Los Angeles, California. The lives of redheaded porn chick Audrey Hollander and her suitcase pimp husband Otto Bauer (also an on-screen talent - yeah, I think it does take talent to stand around screwing for an hour and a half in absurd positions) are highlighted, bookending the film. Hoffman captures the couple doing standard, everyday activities like watching TV together or playing with their dog, but he also shows us the darker side of their relationship. Case in point: Audrey is feeling quite under the weather one day, whilst Bauer is in the kitchen of their own house, pumping another woman in the ass for a Jim Powers movie. Otto, class act that he is, tells his wife to have a beer and suck it up, she's got a scene to do later that day. It's never explicitly stated, but it doesn't take a psychiatrist to put two and two together and figure out that Audrey is playing the victim in her relationship with her husband.

Otto and Audrey - not your average American couple.

And if Otto Bauer's chauvinistic, American flag saluting bullshit doesn't give men involved in the industry a bad rap, the slimy Mark Spiegler will. Spiegler is the premier, go-to agent in LA's porn scene. So entrenched with the major porn studios is Spiegler that it's usually a mistake to make an enemy of him. Balding, blubbery, and a total slob, Spiegler lives with a constantly rotating harem of wannabe starlets in a junk filled apartment. He is essentially the asshole waiting at the bus stop preying on unassuming gals from out of town. We see an example of what happens when you cross the boss with German porn star Katja Kassin, who finds herself frozen out of work opportunities after a massive falling out with Spiegler. By the end of the film Katja has turned to escorting, rationalizing that "In one week I can make more than a month in porn".

They're not all heels though. Director Jim Powers blatantly admits that his movies have no artistic merit whatsoever. "It's all shit," he says at one point when asked about what he films. He uses a lot of the money he makes to fund his punk rock band, his passion and the real outlet for his creative energies. Powers is also the source of one of the biggest laughs to be had in 9 to 5, as a scheduled performer bails on him and he has to frantically light up the phone lines looking for an available porn babe willing to do an interracial gangbang scene with six guys that very afternoon. Just another day at the office!

The sad story of Katja Kassin.

There are plenty of other intriguing stories in 9 to 5. Former porn actress Sharon Mitchell, who dropped out of the business when she was savagely attacked by a stalker and went on to get herself certified as a sex therapist, maintains that there are three types of women who end up in the porn business. The stereotype is that only females from abusive homes wind up shagging in front of a camera, and while they do indeed make up a portion of the performers' backgrounds, there are also the shallow women who are well aware of how much money they can make based on their looks and do it simply for cold, hard cash. The third type are sex addicts, those who just can't get enough carnal fulfillment in their normal lives. This eventually segues into a piece on performers Mia and Ava Rose, real-life sisters who apparently had a relatively normal home life but simply love sex (at least that's what we're lead to believe; Mia makes a confession at the end that indicates she's probably not happy with her lifestyle choices anymore). Another addict is the legendary Belladonna, who we see at home with her loving husband and baby doing all the normal things a mommy would do before heading off to work for a day full of sweaty boinking and sticking baseball bats in her anus. Her husband Aiden is a photographer who appears to genuinely enjoy snapping shots of his wife with other men. In essence, they make a living while getting off at the same time. More power to them, I suppose.

Ultimately, I'd recommend 9 to 5: Days in Porn, even though I feel it's slightly under par on a film making level compared to other contemporary documentaries. It would make a decent watch to those who already enjoy adult entertainment in addition to those who like documentaries but are looking for more 'extreme' or outlandish content to learn about. Still, I feel a twinge of disappointment that this film wasn't more illuminating. Given the subject matter and the length of time Hoffman spent on the project, I would have hoped for some more human car crash stories to pop up. You hear about the tragedies of the smut game, Chasey Lain becoming a real-life crack whore or the grisly fate of Hailey Paige, but 9 to 5 steers well clear of that territory.

2.5 / 5