James Franco's KINK

KINK.com is the largest producer of online BDSM porn movies in the USA and was started by Peter Ackworth, a Brit, from his dorm room at school in the UK in 1997. Now they are based in an enormous defunct Armory Building in San Francisco with many of the original facilities untouched as they make perfect sets for a lot of the perverse activity that now fills the building.

Kink produce movies for the 30 odd different sites they now operate and they cover the whole Bondage and Sado Masochism spectrum from slave training, rope bondage, femdom, gay public Sex, bondage gangbang, female domination, submissive women, lesbian bondage, shemales, naked wrestling, pissing, and sex machines, etc. In this no-holds-barred documentary you get to witness several of the extreme films being made .... I hope the participants were acting, in part at least, because what they allowed their bodies to be subjected to looked awfully painful from where I was sitting.

Filmmaker Christina Voros set out to go behind the mystique of the industry and as she is being shown around the building there is a hilarious scene where she cannot make herself heard above the din coming from the other end of the floor ... Ackworth explains there is an orgy underway .... not something you hear every day. She interviews several of the directors who, with the odd exception, are very matter of fact about their work and how they want to simply be the best in their genre. Occasionally, one will try to intellectualize what they are about, but when they attempt to align this to an art form, they get twisted up in more knots than the models on set.

There is also something rather wholesome about the big family atmosphere that permeates throughout the whole company, and it is rather fascinating to watch the directors and management having their monthly meeting to discuss their success. Why, they ask, have the ratings for 'Divine Bitches' soared whilst 'Electro Sluts' is on the decline? Why indeed, but evidently there are fashions and trends that must be watched even in the sex industry.

The fly-on-the-wall approach works well, and Ms. Voros allows us to witness it all without narration and, more importantly, without judgment. Is it shocking? Yes, in parts -- not the graphic sex, but more the aggressive bondage. Did I learn anything? Well, yes .... thanks to a Dominatrix I know how to stand on an erect penis in stiletto heels without causing any pain. Was it entertaining? To an extent, but it is essentially one big Advertorial for the Kink sites, which lessens its impact and certainly its importance as a general essay on the S + M industry. Would I recommend it? Certainly, if you want to be reminded how boring your own sex life really is.

One of my favorite anecdotes was when one of the models had just finished a very intensive hardcore slave/submission movie and, dressed in his white terry robe, he walked into the main office and was politely asked how his scene had gone. He replied, very matter-of-factly, "I got fucked good." And there you have it.

James Franco produced the movie. Now I'm wondering which of the Kink sites is his favorite.