You won't be disappointed!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The acting in this movie is really good.

i found this look inside the life of one woman in the adult film business interesting.for whatever reason,she allowed a camera crew to to follow her around,not just while working but also during her personal life.she seemed very candid and opened her self up.and allowed herself to be very vulnerable.or at least it appears that way.but it's clear she's also a tragic figure.regardless,the film is an entertaining piece and somewhat revealing.you see someone as a human being,and not just as a sex object.as interesting as the film is,there are no real revelations.and,when you get right down to it,it's still a sad subject.for me,The Girl Next Door is a 7/10

The concept behind this documentary, while presumably having been extremely difficult to implement, is simple as pie: it follows porn actress Stacy Valentine over a course of roughly two years (a hell of a long period for a documentary, and about several eons by porn standards) through her ups and downs, as she rises from mere talent to a "signed", award-winning star. Stacy enjoys being before a camera and at the center of attention , and she is as uninhibited talking about her private life as she is ... erm, I haven't actually seen any of her videos, but getting porked before an audience of millions, I guess.The documentary doesn't vie towards any extremes, Stacy likes what she does and is pretty successful at her job. It doesn't deal with, say, burned-out, drug-addled talent who have to do freak scenes to get by, or just plain sick stuff such as "Showgirls". Therefore you expect a fluffpiece that complements the title: hey, sex is natural, that Stacy is just a small-town girl with a wild streak, and hasn't she done well for herself? Luckily for the viewer, the documentary is thorough, unblinking and lucid, mainly because it follows Stacy for so long, and documents so many aspects of her life. At first you'd swear that she is just as wholesome as shredded wheat, and feel sorry for any hardships that she has to encounter. But this carefully constructed image gradually unfolds: Stacy visits the cosmetic surgeon more often than I see my dentist, and she occasionally comes off as incredibly callous, such as when she prostitutes herself to a wealthy fan (not too long after gushing about how frightened she is of losing her boyfriend because he might find someone better), or when she gets very cross at her boyfriend because he can't handle doing a double-teamed scene with her (she actually services the other guy first -- that's showbusiness).Overall this movie is less about the porn industry (it shows only a thin and fairly respectable slice -- where a girl can actually earn a living) but more about the psychology of a porn starlet -- and all about Stacy Valentine.And here's what I came away with from this movie: Stacy Valentine isn't the girl next door. Or at least she isn't the girl next door as we like to imagine the girl next door to be like. This movie penetrates the candy-coating.

Hmmm. Posted this one about a week ago, but it still has not appeared, so I will try once again...Pornography is big business: while Amazon.com continues to hemorrhage red ink after four years, the average internet porn site is profitable within six months, and the industry as a whole raked in over a billion dollars last year alone. No longer the domain of the dirty old man in a trench coat, "adult movies" are available at most video outlets, and rented by men, women and couples of every social status. Strangely, these same people are quick to judge the performers - they must be drugged out losers, and ex-hookers whose past is rife with sexual abuse. Life is never that simple. Adopted at birth, Stacey Baker had a normal upbringing, had never been abused and was an average young woman - pretty, amiable and somewhat lacking in self-esteem. Not exactly a Rhodes scholar, she had a simple goal in life - get married and be a good wife, because that's what's expected of proper girls from Tulsa. Her husband's Madonna/whore fascination would soon change all that. After pressuring her to get breast implants and pose for nude photos, he submitted the pictures to a men's magazine. To both their amazement Stacey was chosen as "Girl Next Door" and "Hustler" magazine swept her off to do a shoot with a male model on the Mexican Riviera. Loving the attention and surprised at her disappearing inhibitions, she had an epiphany - the woman who previously felt she had no talents, realized that she did have one undeniable skill - she could "f*** great". She had discovered her niche. Stacey soon ditched her overbearing husband, and moved to Los Angeles, adopting the stage name Stacey Victoria. She gives herself two years to become the best in the business and quickly becomes the "it" girl of the porn set. A consummate professional, Stacey is there to get the scene, and nothing - not stinging ants or fake smoke that almost cause her to cough up a lung - is going to get in the way. While she notes cavalierly that "When I'm horny, I go to work, and if I want affection I have my cat…" it is soon apparent that the broad smile pasted on her face is part of her carefully manufactured screen persona. Although there is ample nudity and several sex scenes (carefully filmed to avoid being explicit), it is the unflinching look at Stacey's life that makes you feel like a voyeur. In her world a relationship is threatened not by sex with strangers but rather something as seemingly innocuous as holding hands with another person. We watch as Stacey, driven by ambition, sabotages her relationship with Julian, a fellow "actor" and nice guy who sincerely cares about her. Midway through the film her chirpy optimism has been replaced by a sad cynicism echoed by her new tattoo - "trust no one". Stacey comes to realize that engaging in sex on command has stripped her of the one thing she needs - intimacy. Unable to find it she concentrates on her career, ultimately winning the H'ot Dor, the Oscar of the adult film industry, and you expect her to give the "You like me, you really like me" speech. Stacey's changes are not limited to the emotional. In order to maintain the illusion of living Barbie doll Stacey undergoes numerous plastic surgeries, brought to you in living color. No horror movie can hold a candle to the violence of a silicone implant the size of a throw pillow being yarded through a gaping hole in a women's breast, then replaced with another only marginally smaller implant. If this isn't enough to make you squeamish, they also serve up a liposuction and an operation to give Stacey come-hither lips. Some of the best scenes in the movie come in the exchanges between Stacey and her mother, an amazingly nonjudgmental, supportive woman who lavishes her daughter with unconditional love. Her only worry is that when she is gone, Stacey will spend the rest of her life alone. It is obvious that Stacey had not, until that very moment, contemplated this thought, and both women burst into tears. It is a touching moment that avoids being gooey. The most remarkable thing about Stacey Valentine that there is nothing remarkable about her - she truly could be anyone's neighbor, daughter or sister. If you have the opportunity to see this film seize it.

It's not everyday that you get to meet and converse with a porn star, but that opportunity recently presented itself. Christine Fugate's documentary about award-winning adult video actress Stacy (Baker) Valentine, "The Girl Next Door," was playing at a nearby theater and the additional draw was: come see Stacy in the flesh (well, not really!) Not only did Ms. Valentine and Ms. Fugate field an open and honest Q & A session after the 82-minute movie, but my viewing partner won a movie poster (for being a bleached blonde!) that we later had Stacy autograph.Making a documentary is no walk in the park. Documentarian Fugate had an idea to delve into the inner workings of a porn star, but searched for two years before the ideal candidate emerged. Then, for over two years, she dogged Stacy, following her on-again, off-again romance with fellow porn star Julian, interviewing her parents back in Tulsa, Oklahoma, talking to her various directors on sets all over the San Fernando Valley, witnessing Stacy's highs and lows from Las Vegas to Cannes, as well as operations to make her lips bigger and her breasts smaller.The result? A very even-handed, non-judgmental, frank, and occasionally very funny portrait of a very pretty, almost guileless all-American girl who wanted nothing more than to be a successful housewife. Getting her start when her now ex-husband submitted nude pictures of Stacy to Gallery magazine, she parlayed a follow-up spread in Hustler magazine into a trip to Hollywood in early 1995 to make her mark in adult videos. Dozens of films later, she did just that. And she wouldn't change a thing. (Stacy filmed her last adult video in February, and is now selling a pair of female clothing lines, "Good Girl" and "Bad Girl".)Christine Fugate got a lot a mileage from her credit cards in financing this effort. She (and her editor) ably knows how to fix up the business side of Stacy (grabbing a broom to sweep away ants from a pool-side scene or gamely dealing with artificial smoke that is choking her on the set) and the human side of Stacy (sharing a very emotional, tearful moment with her mother or interrupting an in-vehicle interview with a realistic "You fu**er, nice turn signal"!).Along the way, the audience is subjected to some very disturbing penetrations, and I'm not talking about anything in "Anal Professor," "Hillbilly Honeys," or "Cumming Clean." Very graphic, clinical scenes of replacing a larger saline bag with a smaller one in Stacy's left breast and the injection of collagen into her lips are not images for the squeamish, but are memorable and thought-provoking nonetheless. Stacy describes looking in the mirror and wondering who she has become...it's a very good question.It's interesting to compare "The Girl Next Door" with an earlier documentary about porn actress Grace Quek, "Sex: The Annabel Chong Story." I didn't like the latter, and after seeing the former, I like the latter even less. Not only is TGND better edited and better filmed, but Ms. Fugate did a far more compelling job of portraying peaks and valleys in her subject than did Gough Lewis in his "Sex." I can't recall any peaks in "Sex."I would be remiss if I didn't mention a very amusing scene involving Stacy's mother and stepfather outside their Tulsa home. Their conversation had the audience in stitches and helped to make "The Girl Next Door" a documentary well worth viewing.