Porn Without Sex: "Dirty Secrets"
2021 · 4m · USA
Directed by Laura Moss
Tones: humorous, provocative, theatrical
A period-accurate 1991 vignette: a hunky handyman arrives to handle a housewife's rat infestation, and the film delivers every beat of a pornographic setup while stopping conspicuously short of the payoff. Written by Brendan J. O'Brien and Laura Moss.
Picked by Felix
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Laura Moss — who went on to direct 'Birth/Rebirth' — made a fake 1991 porno that isn't one. The title tells you everything and nothing. Subversion as genre exercise.
Laura Moss (Birth/Rebirth) doing a four-minute 1991 porn-genre pastiche that stops conspicuously short of payoff — the anti-porn parody as art installation is a sharp conceptual joke, and Moss has the discipline to land it.
Under four minutes of 1991-softcore vocabulary executed without the payoff — Laura Moss before 'birth/rebirth,' which makes me trust the execution. The form-without-content gag lives or dies on commitment.