Too much of everything

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

Sorry I couldn't think of a snappier summary title, but this movie really (forgive the pun) got under my skin. An excellent, intelligent documentary about Stacey Valentine, a porn star in her mid-20's,how she ended up doing what she does, but more importantly, what it has done to her.Any female (especially the younger ones) who is even remotely tempted to go into the industry should see this movie. I respected the fact that it doesn't have an obvious agenda, other than to entertain and give you a 90 minute glimpse of what a porn star's life is really like. It manages to show the unglamourous (at best) day-to-day realities of the business, how it can ruin lives and destroy self-esteem, without being the least bit preachy. If there was any voice-over, I don't remember it. Most of the story is told by Stacey herself, in interviews with the filmmakers, or through her interactions with other people including her parents, boyfriend, directors, fans, and friends. My husband said that when it started out, SV "seemed happy and pretty much OK for a while", but from almost the first shot of SV talking about how this is a great job for her because she loves sex and how the porn industry "is the only job where she would get people telling her she's sexy and beautiful", it was obvious that though she is smiling and sounding positive, but really just trying deep down to convince herself that she's happy. In the first few minutes of the movie she reveals that there is only one thing she has any sort of talent for that she could make a living from-sex. She tries to sound proud, but that's a tip off right there that her self-esteem is in the dumpster.This movie is just incredible on so many levels, there's not enough room for me to go into it. It was so riveting, I didn't want it to end. Let's face it-most people (whether they will admit to it or not) would love to be behind the scenes for the filming of a porno movie, just to see what really happens behind the camera (and when the camera is off) and I was no exception. You get to see several scenes of that, and I think anyone who sits through the movie will agree that $1000-$2000 a day (the performers get paid more for the "kinky"-or, more realistically, the extremely uncomfortable, unpleasant stuff that most performers prefer not to do)doesn't even begin to approach the amount of money that women in the industry deserve to make. For one thing, it is not as easy as it looks, to say the least-an image that stuck with me was the ants swarming in a puddle of...( well, you can imagine what liquid needs to be cleaned up on a porn shoot), some of them crawling on SV and even biting her. Keep in mind, these are the high-end, high profile porn films she works in. There's actually some pretty funny scenes, too (especially the driving scene another reviewer mentioned). The film shows in extremely graphic detail what breast implant, collagen injection and liposuction surgery looks like-I would not recommend hitting the concession stand beforehand. For anyone who regards porn stars as less than human, you see that they go to the drycleaners, have trouble meeting decent men, get cut off in traffic, feel insecure about their bodies, get jealous, and visit with their friends just like anyone else.Some of the most poignant scenes involve SV visiting her mother and having an honest talk about her settling down (both of them end up teary), visiting a hypnotist to try to improve her self-esteem, talking about her on-again, off-again relationship with her boyfriend (also in the industry), leaving an Adult Entertainment Awards ceremony by herself, with no award, in the dress she was so excitied about wearing earlier that day, and petting her cat, saying since she doesn't have a special man in her life, there's always her cat for affection. In one of the saddest, she tearily talks about how nice it would be to have someone in her life who would touch her out of love and companionship, instead of for sex. In another, she's shooting some scenes for a movie with her boyfriend, and you can see the hurt on both their faces as he starts to slowly pull farther and farther away -especially after he's 3 feet away from watching the woman he loves perform oral sex on another man, even if it's "just acting".It sounds cliche (it would to me, reading about it) but when you actually see the movie and watch her talking, looking young enough to get carded with her clean-scrubbed face and baggy casual clothes, you can't help but feel for her. I doubt that any woman, after seeing the movie, would trade places with SV for any amount of money. God, I just wanted to go up and give her a hug or something.Having done plenty of research on the 'adult entertainment industry' (for a thesis in college-really!)and also talking and being friends with a few women in the industry, I can say the movie presents a very realistic portrait. Her life isn't a complete living hell- you do see her happy at times, talking about what she wants to do when she retires, laughing with her co-stars, looking like she's having fun doing a photo shoot dressed as Marilyn Monroe and even seeming to genuinely enjoy a scene with a female actress interacted on a live porn web-cam. But the sadness on her face and in her words speaks for itself. What's even sadder to consider is the subject of the film is one of the rarer, more "together" women in the business- SV is mentally and physically healthy, doesn't do drugs, didn't get molested as a child, is reasonably intelligent and has a good sense of humor, and her parents even approve (as much as a parent could, anyway) of her career. Imagine what happens to women who don't have it together as well. I was happy, however, to read that SV has retired and started her own business-hopefully she'll be one of the lucky ones. One side note:not a good date movie if you are hoping to, er, get lucky afterwards, because after watching it, having sex will be the last thing you feel like doing. Trust me, you will NOT be in the mood and end up just playing Monopoly or something. About as un-erotic as you can get. Unless you're easily offended, I can't recommend this fascinating, haunting documentary enough. 10/10 stars.

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.