Pleasure (2021 film)

20-year-old Linnéa, working under the stage name "Bella Cherry", is a naïve, confident girl from a small town in Sweden who emigrates to Los Angeles to become the next big porn star. Under the guidance of her manager, she begins to navigate the challenging world of the porn industry, and is determined to get more significant roles and video views by pushing herself to ignore personal boundaries and limits. Bella shares a house with a group of other young actresses attempting to become famous, and though she is standoffish and private at first, she eventually bonds with one of her housemates, Joy, who supports her and helps Bella build her brand. At a party, the girls spot Mark Spiegler, one of the most successful and demanding managers in the porn industry; he is joined by Ava, one of the biggest names in the local porn scene. Bella attempts to start a conversation with Ava, who ignores her. Joy tries to flirt with a famous male actor, Caesar, but when he cruelly rejects her, she pushes him into the pool and humiliates him.

Bella works on several shoots, including a BDSM scene with a female director who encourages Bella in positive, healthy ways, enforcing safety and consent on the set. However, Bella is determined to push herself further, and she requests difficult scenes from her manager. When she tries to film a scene that involves multiple men degrading her and depicting rape scenes, she is overcome by the pressure and breaks down, repeatedly stopping filming. At first, her costars seem encouraging, but they quickly grow hostile and dismissive when she realizes that she cannot finish the scene. Bella returns home without getting paid, and confronts her manager, who reminds her that she requested harder material. Upset, Bella fires him as her manager.

Now working independently, Bella attempts to acquire Spiegler as her new manager, but he turns her down, still considering her an unknown and informing her that he only accepts actresses willing to do extreme scenes. In order to prove herself, Bella participates in an interracial threesome, which includes a first-ever "interracial, double anal penetration," boosting her following considerably. Spiegler is impressed, and agrees to hire Bella. As a way to repay her friend, Bella requests that Joy be part of her next scene. Joy is initially thrilled, but hesitates when the lead actor withdraws at the last minute, and is replaced by Caesar. Bella implores Joy to go through with the shoot, but soon observes Caesar harassing Joy off-camera. During the scene, which involves degradation and humiliation, Caesar begins to legitimately abuse Joy, who stops the scene in anger. Joy insists to the director that Caesar is harming her, but when she asks Bella to confirm Caesar's earlier harassment, Bella, worried about her reputation, balks. Furious, Joy upbraids Bella for her betrayal and storms off the set.

Bella is given a chance to film a scene with Ava, but Ava humiliates her when she refuses to perform oral sex on Bella, claiming she has a yeast infection. The scene is changed so that Bella will penetrate Ava with a strap-on, but Bella quickly lets her anger and frustration take over, acting violently and aggressively towards Ava without warning or consent, just as many of her male co-stars and directors did to her since her arrival. Ava, despite being the experienced veteran, is overwhelmed and begs to stop the scene. When Bella tries to apologize to Ava later en route to a party, Ava nonchalantly dismisses her as if nothing had bothered her, which disturbs Bella. Bella is further disillusioned when she spots her old housemates at the party, all of whom refuse to speak to her due to her treatment of Joy. On the ride back from the party, Bella abruptly asks the car to stop so that she can get out.

Pleasure was selected for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival before premiering at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on 1 February 2021. On 8 February 2021, A24 acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film.[4][5] However, on 7 October 2021, it was announced that Neon had acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film, reportedly due to conflicts over A24's plans to release an edited, R-rated theatrical cut in addition to an uncensored version; Neon said it would not mandate any alternate edit. The film was screened at the 2021 AFI Fest in Los Angeles on 13 November.[6][7]

The film was released in Sweden on 8 October 2021 by SF Studios,[8] in France on 20 October 2021 by The Jokers,[9] and in the Netherlands on 4 November 2021 by Gusto Entertainment.[10]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 44 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The website's consensus reads, "Provocative on more than one level, Pleasure peels back the curtain on unsavory aspects of the adult film industry, with Sofia Kappel's powerful performance leading the way."[11] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[12] At the 57th Guldbagge Awards, the film received seven nominations, including Best Film and Best Director for Thyberg, and won three, including Best Actress for Kappel. Other awards nominations the film has received include the 2021 British Independent Film Award for Best International Independent Film[13] as well as Best Director for Thyberg and Best Supporting Female for Reustle at the 37th Independent Spirit Awards.

• Pleasure at IMDb