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The Girl Next Door

2000, Movie, NR, 85 mins

The Girl Next Door: Review

GIRL NEXT DOOR, THE
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Oklahoma housewife-turned-adult-film actress Stacy Valentine (née Baker), a pretty blond with an incongruous small-town manner, was introduced to pornography by her husband. He encouraged his young wife — perhaps badgered is the better word — to send nude photos to an adult magazine. She was rewarded with a hard-core pictorial and the cover of Hustler; to her surprise (and that of her soon-to-be ex), she loved the sex business and soon saved enough money to flee her hometown for Los Angeles and forge a career in the adult film industry. Though not as fluent in the language of feminine empowerment through sex as Grace Quek (star of the notorious documentary about her life in porn, SEX: THE ANNABEL CHONG story), Stacy Valentine — as she was renamed — isn't a dope. And, to all appearances, she's not as profoundly screwed up as the glib Quek. But that said, disparities between Valentine — a carefully constructed porn-girl persona — and the real-life Baker are evident. For example, Valentine and her on-again/off-again boyfriend, Julian, also an adult-film performer, assert that they don't mind seeing their partners having sex with other people on film — it's just business. But the first time they work together, a relationship-derailing fight erupts. And it's hard not to see Baker's repeated visits to the plastic surgeon (footage that will make you think twice about lipo) as efforts to deal with some fundamental discontent by literally turning herself into someone else — someone who conforms to a popular stereotype of the "perfect woman." Filmmaker Christine Fugate loads up the soundtrack with annoyingly obvious songs ("I'm always gonna be just an ordinary girl," warbles some dixie chick as Valentine does her thing), but her portrait of Valentine/Baker is rich and compelling. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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The Girl Next Door (Unrated Version)
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The Girl Next Door
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