From Straight A’s to XXX (2017 Lifetime)
Cast: Haley Pullos, Sasha Clements, Judd Nelson
Listen to the Lifetime Uncorked Podcast here!
Watch & Stream the movie here! #Ad
Please buy me a coffee (or glass of 🍷 ) Support Lifetime Uncorked by leaving a $3 tip.
Synopsis (via Lifetime)
To pay her college tuition, a young woman turns to the adult film industry and must balance her personal life with a new life as porn star Belle Knox.
Thoughts
Miriam is a horny nerdy high school student. She wears glasses (Movie ugly, because this woman is beautiful.) and is on the debate team. Miriam and her brother Paul get into college. The news doesn’t sit right with her boyfriend, and he breaks up with her.
At Duke University, Miriam’s family helps her move into her dorm. Her father is called back to Afganistan to be a medical doctor. It is a significant pay cut, and the family worries about paying tuition. Mariam doesn’t worry, though, and meets her party-girl roommate, Jolie.
At the party, Jolie is a social butterfly. Miriam can’t even get the attention of guys.
In the middle of the night, worried about money, Miriam googles how to become a porn star and applies for a job. She takes sexy selfies in lingerie while her roommate sleeps. She gets a call, pretty much the next day, and heads to New York to film a BDSM scene.
At the porn warehouse, the men filming the scene are pushy and unwelcoming. Miriam is rushed to sign a contract and renames herself, Belle Knox. She is the only female on set. They call her slut, slap her, and degrade her. Afterward, Miriam looks into models who rated the site online, and they all recommend she get a representative named Don. Don tells her that she should have had a safe word and the company that hired her are unprofessional. He flys her out to LA during Thanksgiving break.
Once in LA, Don welcomes her and picks her up at the airport. He seems like a nice guy in an unusual profession. He is quick to give Miriam advice. They glam her up and cover-up, cutting scars on her leg. Miriam says she looks like another person, but the makeup artist tells her that she is still Belle Knox now.
Belle’s first scene is with a woman, and she admits to being bisexual but hasn’t had the opportunity to explore the relationship. She gets it in the next few scenes. She films a scene by the pool, in the kitchen, and a three-way in the pool. Her scene partner advises her to tell her family herself before word gets out. Miriam cries and says her family can never find out.
Back at Duke, the college guys still ignore her and call her “ratchet.” Miriam is annoyed because she is blowing up online, but on campus, she is the same nobody.
For Christmas break, Miriam goes home for part of the time. Her family has many questions about her raising so much tuition money. (She claims she is selling drugs, which doesn’t go over well.) Then she goes back to LA to film more scenes.
Jeff, from campus, asks Miriam if she is Belle Knox. Her worlds suddenly collide. She naively makes him pinky swear not to tell anyone. If Jeff found the video, other horned up college kids will too. They do, and Miriam’s personal FB page gets a ton of requests from frat guts on campus. (Gross.) First, the boys find out, and then the girls learn about Miriam. They are even worse at posting terrible messages online. Jolie can’t understand why Miriam would do porn and wishes she would have told her sooner. Jolie suggests Miriam talk to the school paper and tell her side of the story.
Miriam calls her doing porn a feminist it and wonders why making sexual content labels her a slut, while the men consuming the product are given a pass. She walks around campus and feels like she is wearing a scarlet letter. Strangers walk by and call her a slut or throw things ar her. She is a distraction in class because students take pictures of her. The harassment doesn’t stop. The university and woman’s center stand behind Miriam and promise that her legal profession won’t affect her standing as a university student.
Belle Knox films a porn scene about college co-eds and on her breaks studies for finals. It is ironic. She tells her mother over the phone about her job choice, and Mrs. Weeks is disappointed and tells her that she has ruined her life.
Miriam talks on CNN and other news outlets because the story of a college student doing porn goes viral. She defends her decision and even gets to go on The View. The press doesn’t go over well, and Jolie calls out her friend for saying women on campus do not support her. Because, hello, Jolie has been by her side this whole movie.
At home, Miriam’s family struggles to understand her life choices. Miriam continues to build her brand.
Belle Knox works at a porn convention, and the men there are creepy with no boundaries. The other pornstars are jealous of the media attention she has been receiving and call her a diva. When Belle Knox wins the best newcomer award, the girls bully her even more. One of the convention men break into her hotel room and tries to pay her for sex. She is inadvertently slut-shamed in the lobby.
Miriam refocuses her energy on feminism, woman’s rights, and politics.
Side Note
Read about the real Belle Knox/Miriam Weeks here.
Minority Report: Mrs. Weeks, Amy, Jeff, Professor, Siena, Buck, Porn stars, Amanda, Hotel Guest,
Don’t forget to listen to the Lifetime Uncorked Podcast available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!
Donate to keep the blog and podcast going 😊
Overall rating
🔪🔪🔪🔪 (4 Knives)
🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required.)
*Photo Credit: © 2017 Lifetime
