So, I opted to find another movie for Friday night, and decided on something that seemed a bit off-the-beaten trail on Max: Working Girls, a 1986 indie drama about a college grad working as a sex worker, set in a long day on the job. It’s a movie that opens with an interracial, same sex couple lying in bed together, getting a young girl off to school, and then showing the White woman go off to her job in the apartment that doubles as a brothel. And this movie came out in 1986.
It’s not what I think anyone would consider an erotic thriller or anything. It’s just a movie about a day in the life of a sex worker on the job, treating the job like many other jobs. It just so happens the woman has to take her clothes off a lot during the course of her work day.
Working girl Molly (Louise Smith) has a long day at work. She’s got steady hours unlike her other coworkers, but she has to stay late at the office, so to speak, when other girls don’t show up for their shifts. Some of her regulars seem more like shy or lonely men, and she’s even on friendly terms with one or two of them. Others are creepy, and many just come in, do their business, and leave. She has to get creative depending on the preferences of her customers, and her coworkers are all in a similar position to her own. Plus, her boss probably takes too much of her earnings.
That’s basically what this movie is. It’s a day in the life of a sex worker as she goes about her day. Most of the movie is set in the somewhat upscale-looking brothel/apartment, with Molly appearing outside when she wakes up and home and leaves, her trip home at the end of the movie, and a brief trip to the drug store. There’s some sense of community with the other girls, and she has to try and train a new hire while keeping her own home life at least something of a secret. If there’s a conflict to the movie, it’s whether or not Molly is comfortable doing what she does. Mostly, she is, but there are moments when that isn’t quite so true.
Credit to co-writer/director Lizzie Borden here: she made what in many seedier movies is played to titillation and made it as mundane as possible. Yeah, there’s a lot of shots of naked women here, especially Smith’s Molly, but it’s hard to call a lot of what they do “sexy.” It’s more matter-of-fact, and the customers are as much a part of that. Some of them are creepy. Others are weird. And some are actually nice men, like a teacher that Molly offers dating tips to and that she seems rather happy to see.
So, while this was not the sort of movie I thought I was going to be checking out before I started looking for something, I am glad to have seen it. It was very much ahead of its time considering the content. Really, did any other American movie from 1986 treat this profession in this way? None others that I can think of off the top of my head.
Grade: A-
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