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Cycles of Porn: Sex/Life in LA, Part 2 deals with the same materials as The Brothers Grimm-- well, sort of-- as it details the lives and work habits of some men in LA's porn industry. Directed by Jochan Hick-- whose 1990 Via Appia is a great, if mostly forgotten early film on AIDS-- Cycles of Porn: Sex/ Life in LA, Part 2. is a sequel to his 1998 Sex/Life in LA. The earlier film was a smart, well done documentary about the business of porn in LaLaLand, which is the US version of J. M. Barrie's "Never Never Land" where lost boys (and girls) can go to remain young and sexy and cute forever, or at least until they turn 28.

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While Sex/Life in LA was serious and dealt with AIDS-- Hick hardly has a romanticized view of the porn industry-- Cycles of Porn: Sex/ Life in LA, Part 2 goes a step further and follows some of these same performers seven years later. Matt Bradshaw is here, as is Cole Tucker and Kevin Kramer. They are older and (mostly) wiser, but what is so fascinating about the film is how it delineates these men's lives as balanced between pragmatism and imagination. Porn-- like all fictional film, and most of the arts-- is a feat of the imagination.

Keep the dream alive

The thrill of porn is that-- often in spite of the badly filmed body mechanics and the inept lighting etc.-- we nearly always believe in the romance of sex, the contrived fiction of easy eroticism. The reality of porn-- the harsh lighting, the on-set dysfunctions, the lousy pay, the bad working conditions, the drug-related deaths-- are all here, as well, and this is what makes the film compelling. (This is, in a sense, the Will Grimm view of the industry.)

But what Hick is able to do here-- amid the material trappings of everyday work, and the often unpleasantness of jobs that come with no benefits and shoddy working conditions-- is to also show us how sexual freedom and liberation can still be present, even vital. (This is the Jacob Grimm view of the world.)

There's nothing particularly sexy or romantic about Cycles of Porn: Sex/ Life in LA, Part 2-- but it shows the reality befind the fantasy, and as important, the fantasy that keeps the reality of porn production going.