Modern Whore (2025) Movie Drinking Game
Take a Drink: for each new type of sex-work gig explored
Take a Drink: every time a pop-up contradicts or deepens what is said on screen
Take a Drink: whenever the tone turns darker
Take a Drink: for each incredible wig
Take a Drink: for new-agey interjections
Do a Shot: when, well, someone does a shot
By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers) –
A title like Modern Whore kind of catches your eye, no? It’s done well enough both for the best-selling nonfiction book and now this Sean Baker-produced documentary based on it.
Modern Whore is the creation of the authors of that book, Andrea Werhun and Nicole Bazuin, based on Werhun’s experiences as a sex worker
A Toast
Werhun and Bazuin have proved quite the team, producing the book, a short film, and now this feature that they both wrote, Bazuin directs, and Werhun does just about everything else for (she plays like a dozen roles besides herself, and she’s great in each). Together they’ve created a glossy, colorful, and humorous film that’s refreshingly candid about, well, everything involved in plying trade in the World’s Oldest Profession.
Werhun is almost relentlessly upbeat and positive, but doesn’t at all shy away from the darker sides and stories that are an inextricable part of the profession, at least as it is now in the illegal liminal space it resides in most places. The dangers are what you’d expect, and Werhun has unfortunately been confronted with many of them over the years, but her reaction (and those of the diverse ensemble of other people she interviews from the traded) aren’t always what you’d expect.
I particularly found the examination of some men’s obsession with grilling her about what damage she must have to work as an escort or stripper to be illuminating. Some men seem to be drawn to “trauma porn” like it’s part of the titillation or something. Perhaps the most successful thing this documentary does is puncture that assumption, though. Werhun interviews both her own mother and boyfriend, and while they each have their own feelings and even fears about her choices, it’s clear she’s very much loved and supported indeed.
Beer Two
While the film material never is, some of the approach to it is extremely silly. It’s clear Werhun is a big cheese in real life, which is nothing if not endearing, but it’s sometimes a bit much. At worst it even feels like its own form of deflection at times- an ironic distancing that could be a point of future introspection.
Verdict
Modern Whore is an extremely fun but also bracingly frank look at the experiences of sex workers, particularly a star-caliber Andrea Werhun.
