Skin flicking: Our favorite movies about porn

This week Outfest, Los Angeles' annual gay and lesbian film festival, gets under way with a slew of films made by and about the LGBT community. While it's a given that several of these films will be titillating and provocative (it seems like you can't make an indie gay film these days without tossing in at least one ripped muscle stud who takes off his clothes just for the hell of it), we did notice two entries in the festival that are right up our alley. David Kittredge's Pornography is a mystery about a gay porn star who goes missing, while George O'Donnell traces a community's efforts to shut down operation of a gay webcam site in the fascinating documentary College Boys Live.

Coupled with Lynn Shelton's recent Sundance winner Humpday—a sort of post-gay take on Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno about two confirmed straight dudes who accept a dare to have sex with each other in an "erotic art film"—these movies suggest that perhaps porn is finally getting out of the ghetto and into the mainstream. With so many films about the biz making their debut, we thought it would be a good time to reflect (in no particular order) on some of our favorite movies about the skin trade. After the jump, of course. (Oh, and don't forget to stay tuned for our coverage of the Outfest festival.)

The Fluffer (2001) — Former award-winning gay porn auteur Wash Westmoreland (Seven Deadly Sins: Gluttony, The Hole) teamed with his partner, Grief writer/director Richard Glatzer, for this inside look at the, um, ins and outs of the gay porn industry, complete with cameos from industry players like Chad Donovan, Zach Richards, Ron Jeremy and Chi Chi LaRue. The film is certainly entertaining, though its decidedly ugly take on the business might be a bit depressing to some. Still, we can't help but go a little weak in the knees at the breathtaking site of Scott Gurney (above), the gay-for-pay object of affection of the film's titular character. Who wouldn't want to fluff him?

Shooting Porn (1998) — Playwright Ronnie Larsen examines what it takes to make porn in this intermittently insightful, mostly entertaining documentary about the gay porn world. Larsen focuses on three well-known directors, Chi Chi LaRue, Blue Blake and Gino Colbert, and manages to capture the spirit of what they do quite well. The scene with Hunter Scott demonstrating the proper way to douche before bottoming is a scream, and, of course, LaRue steals the show with her over-the-top bawdiness. A must for anyone who has more than just a passing interest in the skin trade, though somewhat dated now.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) — Kevin Smith uses the making of a porn movie as the backdrop for a rather conventional romantic comedy that, luckily, is both funny and romantic—even if it lacks the bite of his past efforts. Seth Rogen is a hoot as Zack, who comes up with the bright idea to make a porn film with his platonic gal pal Miri (Elizabeth Banks) in order to get out of debt after he meets two gay porn stars (Justin Long and Brandon Routh, both woefully miscast) at his high school reunion. It's no Chasing Amy, but it'll certainly do in a pinch.

Boogie Nights (1997) — Paul Thomas Anderson became Hollywood's next great hope with the success of this epic drama about the lives of a close-knit group of pornographers in Los Angeles. Mark Wahlberg famously donned a prosthetic 13-inch penis for the big reveal at the end of the film, but it was the compelling characters and the spot-on depiction of '70s porn (and its hilariously bad acting) that made the film so memorable. At least for the first hour and a half. Then it all just starts to spiral out of control and you want to slice your wrists open. The film's best quote belongs to Burt Reynolds, who talks about wanting to make "a [porn] film that’s true, right, and dramatic… What keeps them in their seats even after they’ve come? The beauty and the acting. They’ll squirt their load and sit in it, just to see how the story ends." Now that's a movie we'd like to see!

Lace (1984) — Not really about porn, but this trashy but fabulous made-for-TV adaptation of the scandalous Shirley Conran novel does star '80s sex bomb Phoebe Cates as Lili, an internationally famous triple-X star searching for the mother that abandoned her. After tracking down three candidates—three estranged friends who went to boarding school together—Lili proceeds to ruin each of their lives before gathering them together and demanding, "Which one of your bitches is my mother?" (And you wonder why the gays love it?) A decidedly less worthy sequel, Lace II, followed (posing the question "Which one of you bastards is my father?"), but this camp classic remains the Holy Grail of over-the-top TV movies from the '80s. Now if they would just officially release it on DVD instead of those bootlegs floating around. Still, they're better than nothing.

Inside Deep Throat (2005) — Gay filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Gay Hollywood) explore the legacy of Gerard Damiano's legendary film, Deep Throat, in this provocative and thoroughly enjoyable documentary. Using surprisingly graphic footage from the original film, the movie tells how Deep Throat caused a sexual revolution in the '70s, and reveals the hypocrisy of those who sought to condemn it and shut it down. With cameos by everyone from Ron Jeremy to Camille Paglia, it's a must-see journey into the sexual consciousness of a country often dumbfounded by its own desires.

Raw Talent (1984) — A porn film about the making of a porn film? Could it be any more meta? Famous XXX star Jerry Butler (he of the super-hot hairy chest and nasty bedside manner) stars in director Chuck Vincent's now-classic "erotic masterpiece" about a struggling waiter in L.A. who tries to break into acting but ends up in porn instead. Shot like a "real movie" and featuring a now-infamous scene of Butler fucking a cooked turkey carcass before spewing his own "special sauce" on the sandwhich of a rude customer (a scene that was later removed, along with several other "controversial" bits, for a '90s re-release), Raw Footage intially turned off critics who wanted their porn to be devoid of such hindrances of plot and character development. Today it is viewed as the blueprint for integrating hot sex into a movie that actually has something to say. Not to be missed (especially if you can find the uncut version), though you can skip the subpar sequel, Raw Talent II.

There Goes the Neighborhood (2005) — A gay beefcake production company moves into the suburbs of 1960s SoCal neighborhood and sets the community aflutter in director Rick Tugger's funny porn film about, yes, porn films. A multi-award-winning sex comedy, the movie plays like a warped sitcom, with nosy housewives stirring up trouble and becoming increasingly desparate when their husbands get a little too curious about the X-rated antics next door. The stellar cast features Brad Benton, Dillon Press, Rod Barry, the late Andy Dilll, and now-MIA Paul Johnson, with nonsexual cameos by Annie Margret and Kate Patrick, plus others. An enjoyable screwball romp with plenty of hot sex, it's no classic, but it's certainly a lot of fun.