8/10
Moving and tragic
30 June 2001
Intensly personal and moving documentary about the life and times of arguably one of the more well known porn stars - Annabel Chong.

The film covers the time during and following her world record of sleeping with 251 men in 10 hours. We see her preparation for the attempt, the attempt itself and the years following where she was afforded great fame but at a huge personal loss.

Annabel is a very intelligent woman; she studied and graduated from USC in 1998 and from her teachers accounts she is a very articulate writer and thinks very analytically. Its only when she tries to verbalise a lot of what she is thinking that we see the pain, the emotional torment that must be facing her every day of her life.

Her voice is one that seems to be on the verge of breaking down into total incomphrensibility - it falters, pauses and staggers along - fuelled a mind that is providing the information but the mouth cannot process it fast enough.

She is a tortured woman; you can see everyone of those 251 men in her eyes every time the conversation moves around to the record breaking feat. She often justifies it by calling it an experiment; one that shows the empowerment of women over men - she was showing that women can be just as agressive sexually as men.

But the price she has paid for it is great. She did not tell her parents for over two years that she was a porn actress. Though not filmed; the after effects of the revelation are shown graphically; her mother on the floor of her room packing Annabels bag, crying and moaning as she removes all trace of her daughter from her life.

There is a lot to this documentary that is worth discovering. Don't get it just for some mindless titalation - there is little of that during its 86 minute running time. What you do get though is a look into the human condition; a condition that craves acceptance amongst peers, a condition that believes it is in control of its own destiny.

A moving lesson for all.

8 out of 10.
13 out of 15 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed