Pretty Persuasion (2005)

Elevator Pitch: Kimberly Joyce is a manipulative female student at a high end private school, whose main objective is to be famous, to which end she has auditioned for a part in a daytime soap. She does not get on well with her father and stepmother and engages a lot in sexual activity with her male schoolmates. Her close friends are a fellow American girl and a Muslim, and they discuss sex a lot. She decides that they will accuse the drama tutor of sexual harassment, and they do. It results in a court case which is a daily feature on the news, particularly since Kimberly initiates a relationship with a lesbian news reporter.

Content: There is no nudity, but the many oral sexual events are identified by the expressions on the recipient’s faces, except for one instance of anal sex which we see. Also the father drinks a lot. The family eat at their dining table and argue. Kimberly receives and makes mobile phone calls. She and her two friends constantly have their heads together during breaks at school. Arguments with the English and Drama teacher take place. We see him becoming sexually aroused when he gets his wife to read an essay written by Kimberly. The trial of the teacher takes place.

A View: I happened to catch this on our cable TV, so had no prior information about this film at all. Hence I could have gone to the foot of our stairs when it was revealed that Kimberly was 15 years old. What sort of loony production values allowed people to green light a film which was inevitably going to be R rated, featuring 15 year olds having sex a lot. Of course the girls were actually older, but that makes no difference; a completely prurient presentation. I did have to watch it, because it’s the job I have given myself. But you don’t have to.

Additional Info:   There are 281 plot keywords most of them relating to sex.