Stella Does Tricks

Not a movie i'd watch again to be honest.

It jumps around too much, flashback memory scenes etc, and subjects of prostitution and Incest..Not to everyone's taste.

It stars, Kelly McDonald as Stella, Peter Bolam as her pimp, and Ewan Stewart as her creepy father.. All really good actors to be fair.

The movie is just too slow, with a couple of exciting scenes thrown in, but a bit sporadic.

Filmed in and around Glasgow and London i believe, for those of you that like to know locations..

I'd give it 4 stars, as it does have some really gritty parts, but overall, it's just too slow.

I saw this film on cable last night. I really wanted to like it because I like Hans Matheson and Kelly Macdonald, but when it was over, I felt disappointed. I think my biggest pet peeve is that the filmmakers spent too much time trying to drive home the point that Stella was molested as a child (after the third flashback, even the dumbest audience member understands) and too little time developing the characters. I would have liked to know more about why Eddie is the way he is, and why Stella latches on to him as opposed to, say, one of her older Johns who isn't a drug addict. Perhaps it was intentional that the only person we get to know is Stella, because that way we can see just how messed up and confusing her life is. I'm just not sure.

"Stella Does Tricks" tells of a Scottish teen female's struggle to escape a life of prostitution. Sans the glitzy appointments of the usual tinsel town fare and exploitive sex and nudity usually accompanying the subject matter, this austere film focuses on the real problems of the principle; addictiveness of easy money, low self esteem from childhood abuse, etc. With excellent performances all around, especially by Mcdonald (Stella), this film's only flaw is annoying dreamlike flashbacking which is too often ambiguous in an attempt to be poetic. Good stuff for those into sincere, earnest, hardworking reality pix about the socially disenfranchised.

I live in a collage like set up with 45 others, and was watching this with 4 people in the common room. By the end of the movie though, there was about 20 people in the room in uproar about the film, what it portrays, who was wrong, who was right, drugs, sex - everything! It's just one of those movies that everyone has an opinion on. The movie follows the life of an underage prostitute. There are basically two stories shown at once in the movie - one showing why she is like she is, and one showing what she is trying to do about it. Although there are not really any graffic sex sceens in the movie, it is more what is insinuated that might make it offensive to some. I recommend it to anyone who wants to see the darker side of the streets. The really scary thing about the movie is that the story was apparently inspired after inteviews with some underage prostitutes on the street! 9 out of 10.

I live in a collage like set up with 45 others, and was watching this with 4 people in the common room. By the end of the movie though, there was about 20 people in the room in uproar about the film, what it portrays, who was wrong, who was right, drugs, sex - everything! It just one of those movies that everyone has an opinion on. The movie follows the life of an underage prostitute. There are basically two stories shown at once in the movie - one showing why she is like she is, and one showing what she is trying to do about it. Although there are not really any graffic sex scenes in the movie, it is more what is insinuated that might make it offensive to some. I recommend it to anyone who wants to see the darker side of the streets. The really scary thing about the movie is that the story was apparently inspired after interviews with some underage prostitutes on the street! 9 out of 10.