“Pleasure” is available to stream on Showtime, where there is a 103-minute version, as well as an uncut version with a 109-minute runtime. Don’t be fooled by the scant R rating, though. “Pleasure” is obviously rife with sexual content, and its sequences of sexual violence can be hard to watch.

Though “Pleasure” is understandably graphic, it never treats sex judgmentally or exploitatively. Thyberg’s film provides fascinating commentary about gender, consent, and the kind of unbalanced power structures that aren’t specific to pornography. “They’re just workers who are performing fantasies,” Thyberg explained to RogerEbert.com.

The director continued, “The bad things that happen to Bella in the film don’t have to do with the fact that she’s having sex on camera, it has to do with problematic power structures that exist in any industry where profits rule over solidarity or empathy. There is just maybe a more extreme version of that in this industry, but the mechanisms are the same.”

“Pleasure” has earned critical acclaim, with an 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes to boot. Crucially, it’s provocative and challenging without proselytizing. “Like any great piece of art, ‘Pleasure’ doesn’t tell you what to think or how to feel,” Marya E. Gates summed up for the same RogerEbert.com piece. “Rather it poses questions about its subject while also inspiring viewers to question themselves.”

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