Antiporno

The few genuinely erotic moments are spiked by Sono who, in the throes of his characters’ passions, will cut to someone vomiting or to a flashback of “real life” sexual trauma. It is chaotic, disturbing, grotesque. It is, quite literally, the antiporno promised by the title. . . . Sono could have easily made a simple Roman Porno. But he did something more. He turned the entire genre on its head, letting its skirt fall to its knees so we can see all its dirty secrets.

Cruelty, masochism, parental abuse (in the painter’s flashbacks) and schadenfreude of all kinds fuel this feverish op-art dream that turns on us at every corner.

As Sono has faced controversy in the past for his violence against women, Anti-Porno feels particularly refreshing. It is at times self-indulgent but ultimately sides on the untapped sexual imagination of women. Closer in spirit to arthouse films like Valerie and her Week of Wonders than an outright exploitation film, the film portrays a sexual awakening under the pressures of a repressed society.