A divorced mother named Paula enters a custody battle and seeks intimacy through a young online sex worker named Trevor. Paula pays Trevor to act as a virtual therapist and to help her get off during their calls. During one call, Trevor answers a knock at the door and is beaten by a masked intruder, which Paula witnesses. Police dismiss the incident as a scam, but blackmailing calls follow. Paula believes something deeper is happening and begins investigating on her own, using her daughter’s hockey stick for protection. She interviews online performers and draws the attention of a crime boss, becoming entangled in a twisted network. Paula is not a perfect victim, and the story probes motives behind exploitation and vulnerability.
"Paula's only access to intimacy is with a young online sex worker named Trevor. Despite his name, Trevor is beautiful, like Jeff Buckley. I suppose Jeff isn't the most exotic name either. Anyway, Paula pays Trevor to act as her virtual therapist, and also remove his clothes to help get her off, if there's time left in the hour. You could say their relationship is entirely digital, in several senses."
"On one of their calls, Trevor answers a knock at the door, and is savagely beaten by a masked intruder a crime to which Paula is the only witness. Have the Chatroulette years of the internet taught us nothing? The police dismiss it as a scam; sure enough, blackmailing calls arrive. But Paula is convinced there's more going on and, armed with her daughter's hockey stick, starts her own investigation."
"She interviews various pornified cam-boys and attracts the attention of a crime boss, as she's drawn into a twisted web. While there is no such thing as a perfect victim, Paula herself is far from either. Scammers are familiar to us all, yet shadowy. They arouse our sense of vengeance: why are you doing this? How dare you prey on vulnerable people?"
"We might have another curiosity, even sympathy: why are you doing this? Are you in a bad situation? Films such as Punch-Drunk Love and The Beekeepe"
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]