About a year or so ago, we had a vote out here that made it a law that porn stars had to wear condoms during um, work hours’.  So how did they respond?  They moved to Miami and other places without the law.

Well played, porn.

That’s one of the interesting tidbits you learn in ‘Hot Girls Wanted’, a documentary that played well at Sundance and is produced by Rashida Jones.  There’s a definite ‘Boogie Nights for the internet age’ vibe to it.  We see how these 18 and 19 year old girls are drawn into this industry making more money than they could ever make doing anything else at that age, by starting on the same path that made Kim K. and her family rich and famous, and has made all of us relatively numb to the idea of seeing our favorite (female) pop stars sell sex with really, nothing left anymore to the imagination.  The men taking advantage of these girls are straight out of the R. Kelly Central Casting playbook. One of them even said more or less, ‘I couldn’t get these girls when I was 18, but now that I’m 30 I know exactly what to say!” (Ew.)

The way the film is structured is very good.  Much like a real life porn ‘rabbit hole’, you can start with ‘this is what I like’, move into ‘um…I don’t know but you have my attention’, then before you know it you’re in full ‘OK this is criminal’ and before you can back out of it you’re in ‘this isn’t sexual at all, this is some repressed, power shit.’  Unlike Boogie Nights though, this is a documentary.  These are real girls with real families, some of whom we meet.  Rough on the emotions at times, but a good documentary.

Now streaming on Netflix.