A Major Disappointment

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Whoever commented that this movie wasn't a drag must have a heart made of stone. It has been three days since I watched this movie and I have not been able to purge the images of these 'very young girls' from my mind. The room full of cocky, ignorant, "johns", who receive a slap on the wrist for engaging in sex with minors, the girls being pressured to slap one another as punishment, a stream of old men filtering in and out of a motel room where a underage girl is enduring god knows what, stories of gang rape and torment, it is heinous and it is real. Men who brainwash young girls, then emotionally and physically abuse them. Yes, there are some happy endings, but the end does not justify the means. The only thing I can keep telling myself is that what ever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, so hopefully some strong, unstoppable, fearless women will be born of these horrible experiences, but it is not enough. Child exploitation and human trafficking are sick and sad epidemics in our country and world wide and they must be addressed. So watch this movie, hopefully it will sink in, hopefully you can expose yourself to the gritty reality of other people's lives.

You won't waste your time watching it, especially if you are watching it on TV and you are able to do other stuff while it is on. It does a decent profile of GEMS. It gives us an idea of how messed up our court system is when they convict underage hookers instead of treating them as victims of sexual abuse. But no interviews with prosecutors or legislators of why this is so.The documentary should have been titled GEMS because it really offers no fresh insight into why these girls turn away from their families in the first place? Yeah, we know the father figure aspect of these pimps attracts them to the profession in the first place. But why were they for the taking? No real insightful interviews with the mothers of these kids were done.It would have been nice to have seen what it took for Rachel Lloyd to set up her non profit to give us an idea why more of these non profits do not exist.There was one girl who expressed an interest in becoming an archaeologist, travel to England. The doc really dropped the ball in explaining why someone like this, with good grades, would even be in the position of being approached by a pimp and why she was so quick to fall for his persuasive powers.It should have been a 45 min to one hour doc at most profiling GEMS.

This is in response to the previous review made about this film. Okay, I can see that you had difficulties from a technical perspective, but to finish your review with a question asking why there was no coverage about AIDS, reveals your ignorance and prejudice against sex workers. This is a documentary about young girls who are coerced into the sex trade, and although AIDS is an issue, it is just as much of an issue for any other person out there who is having sex with multiple partners.Would not a scene about AIDS be just as "staged" as you say the scene with the mother who got the phone call was?Who are you to criticize a film that is trying to raise awareness about a critical issue in society? Much less a film that sensitively reveals a harsh predicament that most people could never understand or fully empathize with.It seems like some people never learn no matter how many documentaries they see...

I saw a special screening in Greenwich Village last night and the whole crowd was gasping, crying and laughing together. It's truly a tour de force, and you fall in love with these girls as they talk about their hopes, their painful experiences and the surprising, frightening truth about teenage prostitution in America. Highly recommended. You might think a movie like this would be a drag, but it's not--it's surprisingly entertaining, and really a fascinating, wonderful experience."Issue" documentaries carry the danger of being too focused on polemics and not enough on the people involved or the cinematic experience. The filmmakers avoid this nicely by focusing on the girls themselves, following their ups and downs and giving them the chance to express their contradictions. This is especially effective, I thought, in a sequence when one girl cannot help but call her pimp and tell him she loves him.