Working Girls

Name: Working Girls
Genre: Drama
Released: February 27, 1987
Duration: 93 min
Rating: 62
Cast: Amanda Goodwin, Boomer Tibbs, Deborah Banks, Eli Hasson, Ellen McElduff

1987

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Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Critic Reviews

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Working Girls

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Movie Details & Credits

Janus Film | Release Date: February 27, 1987 | Not Rated

Starring: Amanda Goodwin, Boomer Tibbs, Deborah Banks, Eli Hasson, Ellen McElduff, Liz Caldwell, Louise Smith, Marusia Zach, Richard M. Davidson, Tony Whiting

Summary: Sex work is portrayed with radical nonjudgment in Lizzie Borden’s immersive, richly detailed look at the rhythms and rituals of society’s most stigmatized profession. Inspired by the experiences of the sex workers Borden met while making her underground feminist landmark Born in Flames, Working Girls reveals the textures of a day in theSex work is portrayed with radical nonjudgment in Lizzie Borden’s immersive, richly detailed look at the rhythms and rituals of society’s most stigmatized profession. Inspired by the experiences of the sex workers Borden met while making her underground feminist landmark Born in Flames, Working Girls reveals the textures of a day in the life of Molly (Louise Smith), a photographer working part-time in a Manhattan brothel, as she juggles a steady stream of clients, balances relationships with her coworkers with the demands of an ambitious madam, and above all fights to maintain her sense of self in a business in which the line between the personal and the professional is all too easily blurred. In viewing prostitution through the lens of labor, Borden boldly desensationalizes the subject, offering an empathetic, humanizing, often humorous depiction of women for whom this work is just another day at the office. [Janus Films]… Expand

Director: Lizzie Borden

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 93 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

The down-to-earth portrayals possess none of the stereotypes popular in media representations of prostitutes, and, as a result, are frighteningly realistic. A film with an interesting and provocative feminist edge. Read full review

Jay Scott

Too distanced to be called compassionate - the term can imply condescension - Working Girls is provocative, honest and disturbing. [15 May 1987]

Roger Ebert

Working Girls is not a slick and dramatic movie. There are moments that seem forced and amateurish, and the over-all structure of the story is fairly predictable. What the movie does have, though, is the feeling of real life being observed accurately. Read full review

David Ansen

Working Girls has its shortcomings (the madam is too caricatured, the script occasionally reads like rehashed research), but the film, a fiction with the conviction of a documentary, fascinates and provokes. [06 Apr 1987, p.64]

Staff (Not Credited)

Borden sugars her pill with clean, crisp, often witty recording of brothel action and shop-talk. All acting is credible and the camerawork is smooth, the non-action a bit on the long winded side. Read full review

Richard Harrington

While she demystifies prostitution, managing at times to make it seem as boring as it must often be, Borden (and cowriter Sandra Kay) make the characters almost too sympathetic. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Borden's calculated dramatic reconstruction falters as one set of stereotypes is substituted for another. Wooden lines stand in lieu of dialogue, caricatures in place of characters. Read full review

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