InRO Weekly — Volume 1, Issue 11

FILM REVIEWS
the middle, that supporting sex workers and condemning sex
trafficking and child sexual abuse are not mutually exclusive.
This is, of course, the case, but the film only passively suggests
any messaging at all, and so the whole project seems merely,
blandly informative. In fact, this tip-toeing results in both sides
coming across somewhat poorly, with activists presented as
impossible-to-please prudes, while the Pornhub supporters
frequently come off more like basement-dwelling Redditors or
Regina George-esque mean girls.
Perhaps most frustrating of all is that Money Shot also takes
itself entirely too seriously — for a film about porn, it’s
remarkably tame; if the goal wasn’t to meaningfully interrogate
the arguments and factions it introduces, it could at least bring a
little more panache to the table than a fake cum shot and some
blurred screengrabs (which is not to suggest that anyone is in
need of any more “dick pics” in their life, especially when sitting
down to enjoy a Netflix documentary). Frustratingly, even when
Money Shot briefly hits on interesting material less often
discussed in the world of porn — the way the industry supports
conventional beauty standards and how its algorithm censors
anyone who doesn’t fit the mold — it closes the loop as
prematurely as Jason Biggs in American Pie. The optimistic might
say that any discussion around the film’s subject matter is a good
thing, but the other side could — nay, should — argue that the
attention the film commits to the religious right’s side of the
argument introduces more harmful rhetoric than productive. In
either case, Money Shot is as limp as docs come. — EMILY
DUGRANRUT
DIRECTOR: Suzanne Hillinger; CAST: —; DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix;
STREAMING: March 16; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 34 min.
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