By Kyle Flynn

Modern Whore is the new hybrid documentary directed by Nicole Bazuin and produced by Sean Baker, detailing the experiences of sex workers primarily through the eyes of Andrea Werhun. The film takes on an interesting form by being both a documentary with key interviews from both Werhun and the sex workers featured throughout, but also manages to achieve narrative recreations of key stories told. 

Andrea, as the guide through learning about both the bright and dark sides of the sex working industry, has a significant role to play. Each coinciding moment felt like it fit thematically with the point both Nicole and Andrea wanted to get across, which, on the surface, I would say is to understand sex workers are people with feelings; they experience love and pain just like everyone else. The narrative went further than just providing commentary on the destigmatization of sex work by speaking so candidly about each of the on-camera sex workers involved with the film. A key moment that just struck me was this roundtable with women who happened to previously work or currently work as sex workers, with the conversation being driven by Andrea. The conversations that arise strike me as something that I really would be hard-pressed to find anywhere if researching anecdotal experiences of sex workers. 

The narrative recreations of Andrea’s life (and the other sex workers) featured do hit home, but I can’t help but feel it is not as successful as it could have been if it were not so tangentially connected to the movie. It creates an odd dynamic that obviously affects the tone, not for the worse, but just changes in many ways what this movie would feel like if not for scenes like this. The dichotomy between Andrea the person and Andrea the sex worker is played around with and explored. If part of the thesis is to acknowledge that they are the same, I believe I have to say that these narrative recreations and docu-fiction aspects do serve their purpose well.   

The film’s visual tone can be mixed, but it has a distinct look that I appreciate. More specifically, many of the narrative scenes were well-lit and shot on likely a very small budget. 

           In the end, this is a very interesting documentary that I would argue has its morals in the right place regarding what it expects the viewer to learn and take away about sex work. The effort put into the final product can not be ignored, even if I never found myself operating on its wavelength half the time. 

3.5 stars