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Angel's Ladies

2000, Movie, NR, 80 mins

Angel's Ladies: Review

ANGEL'S LADIES
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This documentary's subject sounds like a "Can you top this" joke: Hey, did you hear the one about the Christian swingers who sold their funeral home and opened a cathouse? But director Doug Lindeman isn't laughing at anyone. He gives a sympathetic hearing both to brothel owners Angel and Mack Moore and to the women who work in their establishment. The result is a thought-provoking examination of the day-to-day realities of legalized prostitution. Mack and Angel met while she worked at his Eugene, Oregon, funeral home. They discovered common ground in their Christianity and open-mindedness about sex, and married despite a significant age difference. Prompted by several personal considerations (including the devastating loss of Angel's sons: one in an accident, the other to kidney disease), the couple sold the funeral home and decamped for someplace more sunny. They bought a house in Las Vegas and summer property in nearby Beatty, which happened to include a working brothel. Fran's Star Ranch enjoyed a fine local reputation as a clean, friendly whorehouse. Mack then renamed it "Angel's Ladies," and the couple decided to keep it as an exemplary house of ill-repute. The "ladies" with whom Lindeman speaks seem generally contented, and all say that Angel's Ladies compares favorably to other brothels. However, over the course of several interviews, cracks appear in the façade of this establishment's squeaky clean image. By the time everyone's had his or her say, it's clear that there are no easy answers to the complexities of sex work, and that none of these individuals are one dimensional. Frankly, it's worth seeing just for the revelation that when the hookers won't service certain unappealing clients, the plain, middle-aged Angel must step in, ostensibly to say hey — a little nookie might be all that stands between this guy and suicide. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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