Naked Ambition, an R-Rated Look at an X-Rated Industry

An entertaining, adeptly crafted documentary that treats its provocative subject matter with refreshing respect.

In contrast with Grecco's evocative photos, his film is scattered and platitudinous, skimming the surface of his subjects and betraying his high-art aspirations with a shallow E! aesthetic.

It's less a documentary than a promotional video for [director Michael Grecco's] book...

There's plenty of nudity, famous porn faces (don't worry, Ron Jeremy shows up), and a few respectable stories, but an overall arc of an idea with all this siliconed commotion? It never arrives.

As a look inside the porn industry itself, it barely scratches the surface.

Whether Grecco, with his awestruck, sycophantic narrative style is really just doing this all tongue-in-cheek or it(TM)s a legitimate attempt to get inside the industry is debatable"but, for as far as it goes, it works.

All the naked people on display here are certainly easy on the eyes, but it's not much of a stretch to say that, as usual in Hollywood, the book is better than the movie.

[Director Michael] Grecco comes across as a naive, wide-eyed kid in Wonderland, which might be sweet if it wasn't so obvious his real motivation is to make the audience feel good about buying his book.