How Sasha Grey Can Help Mainstream the NC-17
After crossing over from pornography into legitimate acting in Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience, Sasha Grey is now signed on to star alongside Michelle Rodriguez, Danny Trejo and Eric Roberts in a new film titled Skinny Dip. Again, this will not be an adult film. All that's known now is that it's a revenge story involving a young woman and a policeman that will be produced by Trejo's son. But the salacious title got me thinking: Could some sort of adult film/mainstream crossover finally create enough demand to catapult NC-17 films into the mainstream?
The NC-17 rating has more or less been a kiss of death ever since it's creation. Major theaters won't book the films, many mainstream media outlets won't advertise them, and thus the rating carries negative, inexplicably taboo connotations among audiences. Horror movies have tried to fight it and failed. Soon, Blue Valentine will go to bat for prestige pics, which haven't fared so well in the past.
So, since it's a slow news day, let's get completely hypothetical with Skinny Dip and how the right movie with this package might help stage an NC-17 coup. The ensemble itself so far is enough to raise some eyebrows. Machete's disappointing opening aside, Trejo seems to have goodwill from the public now. Eric Roberts has a huge cult following and Michelle Rodriguez obviously has a built in fan-base.
Now add a porn star-turned-actress who is not at all shy about her beginnings and a titillating title. If whoever is marketing this thing plays their cards right, Skinny Dip could be a prime candidate for Snakes on a Plane levels of hype. (And hey, if the movie is good enough, maybe it won't face Snakes on a Plane levels of box office return.) Then, with buzz about the film -- say, as a Wild Things for the new millennium -- reaching a fever pitch, the film makes good on its potential and gets slapped with an NC-17 rating. And the press goes wild. Would theaters really stand by their moral standards with a $30 million-plus opening weekend at stake?
The film in question doesn't have to be Skinny Dip (and again, besides the title and cast, almost nothing is known about this movie), it could work for any movie that merges audience friendly erotica with star power, a high-concept plot and savvy marketing. And since the adult-film industry is getting bled dry by the Internet right now, it seems like a great time for them to explore new partnerships. Granted, even if this idea or something like it worked and an NC-17 movie opened on top at the box office, it wouldn't immediately open the floodgates for more challenging and artistic explicit films. And if the crossover between adult film and mainstream film went too far, we may end up with the same problem the X-rating faced, where soft-core trash dominates the rating and films with artistic merit get lumped in with those.
But after 20 years and little headway on this problematic rating, something has to give. And whatever it is, it will depend on audience demand.
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Comments
Unfortunately, Sasha Grey sucks in everything she does.
B, I think her former co-stars would say "fortunately" she sucks in everything she does.
In my view, the problem with the NC-17 rating is that it still carries the stigma of pornography, which the MPAA brought upon themselves by copyrighting every rating except the X back in the day, leaving the "adult" film business to plaster X ratings on everything they produced. The idea that a porn star unevenly making her first forays into legitimate cinema might make the rating more mainstream gets it backward.
Instead, blockbuster movies intended for adult audiences will need to be classified as NC-17 (not talking porn here, but films like Blue Valentine, which deal with mature, grown-up issues in a way most parents would deem inappropriate for 13-year-old audiences). As far as I'm concerned, Sasha Grey can go make G-rated movies if she wants. But it would be nice to have a system that allows for films that deal with sensitive material without it all being painted with the same brush reserved for "erotica" and extreme violence.
Skinny Dip sounds like it's based on the book of the same name by Carl Hiaasen. He's a funny author similar to Christopher Moore, but his books are all based on Florida characters and they are all hilariously accurate. He also wrote the book Hoot, which was adapted to the screen (a kid/family movie)
Very good points - I agree. I'll grant that this was just me day dreaming in the early morning. But the fact is that we've had this same problem for 20 years and that sensible logic has made zero headway. And Blue Valentine is almost a non-issue in my mind because it probably wasn't going to expand too far behind art houses in the first place (I haven't seen it, but I'll be pleased if I eat my words.).
In any case, if something a bit more trashy, but still with some artistic merit and mainstream accessibility sets the precedent that changes this, then I'm for it. I don't mean to be cynical, but if anything turns the tide, I think it's going to be money. If the rating could find a way to engage the masses, then maybe a market could be created for more challenging adult fare. And then mainstream filmmakers wouldn't have to cower at the rating.
Though if you DO want to get really cynical, you could argue justly that it would just create a market for trash.
Yeah, I was gonna say, "Skinny Dip", young woman and policeman (ex-policeman in the book), surely the Hiassen? Hiassen also wrote "Striptease", though the Demi Moore-starring result bore little relationship to the book, which is quite good.
Sasha Grey is a whore. Nobody is going to want to see this film except for porn addicts. This world gets more and more disgusting with her in it. She's NOT even pretty at all.
There is something wrong with that girl. Not to mention she is so unattractive she had to go into porn to get any kind of attention. She is really a sick person.
The world is more and more disgusting because of people like you. It takes a particularly repulsive person to attack a women like that. I try to ignore people like you but that just lets you're horrible comments stand without a reply. I know you will never stop spreading hate, but please realize that no agrees with you and we all just wish you would stop.
I love Sasha...have ever since I saw her do ass to mouth, and swallow pee at age 18...a true talent.
I'd watch her in a Highway Patrol training Video...in fact, she would be the only reason I'd give Trejo a dime.
Seriouscritic,
I think the sick person here is you...probably the kind of guy that votes against Gay marriage and supports the Patriot Act. Just because she doesn't live a lifestyle that you condone doesn't mean she is "sick". Sure she is nasty...and fucks for a living....but that does not mean she is sick. Might be a nice girl...maybe she likes Mozart and visits the Getty...maybe she is taking all the money she is making and investing it so she does not have to get butt fucked by two guys at once to make her way at age 50.
If you are a guy...you are just sexually frustrated that your woman won't give you what Sasha seems to be willing to do; and if you are a woman you are just jealous that there are women whom are sexually liberated and having fun while you are stuck in a life of missionary sex for procreation only hell.
The MPAA has, unfortunately, already missed two fantastic opportunities to help NC-17 go legit (yes, I know it's already supposed to be legit, but it'll never be treated that way as long as newspapers won't run the ads and multiplexes aren't allowed to screen the films).
There were two very high-profile blockbusters that should've been rated NC-17 for violence. They were awarded R ratings instead due to the clout of the people behind them. If the MPAA had given NC-17s to either "Saving Private Ryan" or "The Passion of the Christ"--or preferrably, both--mainstream American theaters would've had no choice to accept them, due to the magnitude of their star power and the high interest in their subject matter.
But Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg aren't people you hand an undesired rating to and expect them to be happy about it. And the MPAA is a business the same as any major movie studio. They certainly don't need to make the NC-17 more acceptable because they don't make movies. They just rate them. And if anybody wants their movie to be widely seen in theaters, you have to deal with the MPAA.
Thanks for writing the blog. I didn't wonder abort it ever before.