PORN IN THE USA

The industry on film

THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT 1996

Woody Harrelson plays the larger-than-life publisher of Hustler in this spirited chronicle of the legal tussles that turned the wheelchair-using porn king into the unlikeliest of free speech champions. Edward Norton and Courtney Love lend colour to this portrait of a smut magnate that director Miloš Forman called “a devil with angel’s wings”.

BOOGIE NIGHTS 1997

Expanded from a satirical short Paul Thomas Anderson made at 18, this vibrant alt-history of the adult film industry is a sympathetic depiction of a skin-flick family oblivious to the sleaze and exploitation on which their world hangs. Mark Wahlberg plays the well-endowed newbie that Burt Reynolds’ director takes under his wing.

ORGAZMO 1997

A naïve young Mormon becomes a porn-film superhero in a gleeful provocation from South Park co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone that comes with its own climaxstimulating ray gun. Max Hardcore, Christi Lake and Shayla LaVeaux are among the real-life porn stars who are roped into the wacky action.

ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO 2008

Two hard-up flatmates (Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks) shoot a blue movie to get them out of their financial hole in a raucous romp from Kevin Smith that’s both saucy satire and sweet-natured romcom. Traci Lords cameos as a porn starlet who’s forever blowing bubbles from a certain orifice.

LOVELACE 2013

The star of Deep Throat finds her voice in a considered biopic from Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman that gives its heroine (Amanda Seyfried) more agency than she was ever allowed in life. Peter Sarsgaard plays Linda’s abusive husband while James Franco cameos as Playboy supremo Hugh Hefner.