Film

Pleasure

Name: Pleasure
Genre: Drama
Released: 2021
Cast: Sofia Kappel, Zelda Morrison, Tee Reel, Evelyn Claire, Chris Cock

Other titles called Pleasure: the 2013 film.

Drama

Pleasure follows a young woman's calculated ascent through the adult film industry with unflinching clarity. Swedish director Ninja Thyberg crafts a portrait of ambition, survival, and compromise that treats its subject with the seriousness of any other workplace drama. It's explicit, unsentimental, and demands viewers grapple with uncomfortable questions about desire, exploitation, and agency.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a clear-eyed, unsentimental look at ambition inside an industry that sells intimacy, and you're happy to watch a single-minded character push past discomfort.

Skip it if the observational pace is deliberate and often bleak, so it will test anyone wanting a brisk plot or a story that keeps its distance from explicit material.

What it asks of you: Under two hours of unhurried, close-framed watching that lingers on faces and workplaces rather than cutting for relief, rewarding stillness more than momentum.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Hustlers2019

A sharp ensemble drama about women using their bodies as currency in a system that undervalues them. Fast-paced, stylish, and surprisingly empathetic about desperation and friendship under pressure.

But The heist plot can feel like it's decorating the real story rather than driving it, and some may find the tonal shifts between comedy and crime feel uneven.

Showgirls1995

Paul Verhoeven's notorious Vegas drama is actually a sharper film than its reputation suggests—a portrait of a woman clawing upward in an industry designed to chew her up. Visually aggressive and morally complex.

But It's genuinely trashy in ways that undercut its own arguments, and the script can feel like it's winking at the audience rather than trusting them.

The Girlfriend Experience2009

Soderbergh's minimalist study of a high-end escort playing different versions of herself explores performance, authenticity, and transactional intimacy with real intelligence and restraint.

But It's deliberately shallow and cool in tone; the detachment that makes it smart can feel cold if you're looking for emotional connection.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Pleasure

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

I Stand Alone1999

Both films use subjective filmmaking and unsympathetic POV to force viewers to reckon with complicity; both depict worlds where survival requires moral compromise.

Gaspar Noé's monochromatic portrait of a butcher spiraling into misogyny and violence. It shares Pleasure's willingness to depict human ugliness without moral handholding, and its formal audacity makes you feel complicit in watching.

But Genuinely difficult to sit through—the camera moves in nauseating ways, the sound design is assaultive, and the protagonist is irredeemable.

Leaving Las Vegas1995

A portrait of self-destruction and transactional relationships between a sex worker and a suicidal drunk. Brave, harrowing, and genuinely moving about connection found in ruin.

But Relentlessly bleak without much light; the depiction of addiction and degradation won't appeal if you're seeking uplift or catharsis.

In a Lonely Place1950

Bogart in a rare non-sympathetic role as a violent man undone by his own nature. A ruthless character study disguised as a noir, exploring how charm masks danger.

But The pacing is slow and deliberate; modern viewers expecting plot momentum may find it a slog.

The Deuce2017

HBO's sprawling drama chronicles the porn industry's birth in 1970s New York with the seriousness of a David Simon production. It's messy, political, and populated with real humanity alongside exploitation.

But Two seasons, each thirteen hours; it's a commitment, and the first season meanders before finding its footing.

Dancer in the Dark2000

Lars von Trier's devastating film about a woman working in a factory and moonlighting as a dancer, living in denial until reality becomes impossible to escape. An unconventional musical that destroys you.

But It's emotionally punishing by design; the ending is so brutal it may feel manipulative rather than cathartic.

Memento Mori1999

Both are about young women navigating systems designed to exploit or erase them, but Memento Mori finds transcendence and connection where Pleasure finds complicity and isolation.

A Thai film about four schoolgirl suicides that becomes a meditation on death, friendship, and the supernatural. Shot through with beauty and strangeness, it's a ghost story about grief and intimacy.

But Suicide is the subject; some viewers may find it triggering. Also genuinely weird in ways that Western narrative logic won't prepare you for.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles1976

Both films center sex work as work—unglamorous, repetitive, absorbed into the texture of daily life—but Akerman locates dignity in routine while Pleasure locates it in ambition.

Chantal Akerman's three-hour film depicts a widow's daily routine including her work as a sex worker. It's slow cinema at its most radical—the mundane becomes profound. Completely rewires how you see labor and time.

But Three hours of static shots of a woman chopping vegetables, fucking clients, and folding napkins. If you need plot or dramatic structure, you will hate this.