Featuring: Stacy Valentine (nee Stacy Baker)
Director: Christine Fugate
Producers: Eren McGinnis, Adam Berns, Christine Fugate
Music: Denis M. Hannigan
U.S. Distributor: Indican Pictures
It's a strange phenomenon of the motion picture industry that movies occasionally come in pairs: two films about volcano eruptions, two films about comet strikes, two films about Columbus' arrival in the New World, etc. This double vision struck Park City, Utah in January of 1999 with the most unlikely of subjects: documentaries about female porn stars. While the Sundance Film Festival was showing Sex: The Annabel Chong Story, across town at Slamdance, Christine Fugate's The Girl Next Door was making its debut. On the surface, both movies sound similar: true-life character studies of women who have found a degree of fame through a career in the adult entertainment industry. However, while Sex is muddled and poorly-focused, The Girl Next Door represents a sincere and enlightening portrait of a complex individual.
Her stage name is "Stacy Valentine", and her list of credits list more than 65 adult movies, including a number of popular titles. She has been working in the industry since 1995, when she escaped from an abusive marriage in Oklahoma and surfaced in Hollywood. It was there that documentary filmmaker Fulgate made contact with her, and the result is a fascinating chronicle of two years in Stacy's life, including highs (such as her winning the "Hot D'Or" award for Best American Starlet at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival) and lows (her breakup with her boyfriend). Stacy gives Fulgate surprisingly candid access, allowing the director to film her during some of the darkest moments of this period.
Although The Girl Next Door's primary goal is to offer a well-rounded cinematic representation of Stacy The Person (not just Stacy The Porn Star), the cameras also reveal something about the world around her. Without being judgmental, Fulgate gives us an unvarnished look into the heart of the porn industry. The Girl Next Door isn't an expose, nor is it intended to be - the movie doesn't dwell on drugs, violence, and sleaze. Instead, it depicts the hollowness of this lifestyle. All that glitters is not gold, and, in this case, the glamour is all artificial and the adoration is skin deep.
Just as nothing about the industry is real, nothing about "Stacy Valentine" is either - not her name or her body. Fulgate's job is to peel away the porn star personality warn like a gaudy garment by Stacy Baker and reveal the naked character of the girl underneath. Stacy Valentine is a product of her environment - her breasts have been augmented more than once, her thighs and legs have been liposuctioned, and her lips have been injected with fat removed from her hips. On one occasion, she mentions that she hardly recognizes herself when she looks in the mirror.
Initially, Stacy seems like a well-adjusted young woman who enjoys and is fulfilled by her chosen career. She's sexually proficient, so that's what she does for a living. ("I know I'm good at sex...I'm very confident about my sexual capabilities.") She doesn't want a boyfriend, because her marriage has instilled in her a deep mistrust of men. So, in her words, "If I'm horny, I go to work. If I want affection, I've got my cats." Gradually, however, the cracks in her façade begin to show. Her sense of self-esteem is easily bruised (hence all of the plastic surgery). She wonders what the future holds - the shelf life of a porn star is short. Her hopes for a long-term relationship with a fellow X-rated film actor named Julian crumble. And, most of all, she craves something she cannot define. She senses the emptiness around her but can't quite break free.
The Girl Next Door is peppered with scenes that are memorable for one reason or another. The most disturbing of these occurs when Fulgate's camera follows Stacy into the operating theater for the liposuction and breast augmentation surgery. We are given a clear view of everything involved in both procedures. Later, there's an unrehearsed heart-to-heart between Stacy and her mother that ends up with both of them in tears as they confront their mortality. (Stacy's mother is ambivalent about her daughter's career - she professes her support, but she's clearly not comfortable with it.) In Cannes, Stacy confesses her misgivings about prostituting herself for a wealthy fan because she needs the money. And, during a telling scene on a film set, Stacy services an actor while Julian looks on with an expression of unmistakable anguish. Through it all, Fulgate's cameras are rolling, and it becomes increasingly obvious that filmmaker and subject have formed a strong bond. Although Fulgate never appears on screen, her presence is felt throughout. Her perspective becomes ours.
From a technique standpoint, The Girl Next Door is put together with more finesse than one might expect from a movie financed via 8 overdrawn credit cards. Of course, this is not Fulgate's first effort behind the camera or in the editing room - her resume includes a number of other documentaries, several of which aired on PBS. The best true-to-life character studies (such as Hoop Dreams and Crumb) are those that give audiences a vivid and often unexpected portrait - a quality in evidence here. The Girl Next Door is about dispelling stereotypes and derailing preconceptions. Behind the mask of Stacy Valentine, Stacy Baker isn't that different from anyone else. She's a little soul-sick and lost, and, like each of us, is on a quest for the meaning of life.
Fans who have bought into the fantasy image of Stacy Valentine may find The Girl Next Door to be a disillusioning experience. After seeing this film, it is impossible to objectify her; she has become a real person. And those who come to this movie expecting to be titillated will be disappointed. Although there is a fair amount of bare flesh and frontal nudity as well as non-simulated sex (albeit with the hardcore parts obscured by carefully-chosen camera angles), it is all presented clinically. In fact, the breast augmentation surgery is more likely to provoke a visceral response than the behind-the-scenes footage at porn shoots.
For Fulgate, The Girl Next Door represents nearly four years worth of effort - two years to find her subject and another two years to film her. For Stacy Baker/Valentine, it's an opportunity to open up before the camera and bare her soul in a more explicit manner than she has ever displayed her body. For the viewer, this is a rare chance to voyeuristically experience the life of a woman who occupies the fascinating position of being one of the adult entertainment industry's top draws.
© 2000 James Berardinelli