In this delightfully smug feature, a documentary filmmaker implausibly allows himself to be bullied for two hours by an interviewee whose approach to the questions being asked is, "%#$@ you." While none of the observations offered rise beyond the banal, her attitude of world-weary wisdom with a side of condescension appears to be designed exclusively to allow any viewer who might relate to her to feel good about it. Apart from empowering those audience members with a chance to look with scorn on everyone else in the room, the film accomplishes little. The interviewer, cunningly devised to be the ideal shallowly moralistic and unthinking opponent for his subject, never manages to ask a question one might not find in a pamphlet. There is little in the way of insight from the film's parade of angry performers, many of whom seem thrilled to have a chance to make use of acting skills they're usually only allowed to employ in angst-ridden productions at theatres downstairs from the local coffee shop. Oh, also it's elegantly filmed in a striking black and white, and the lead is played by a succession of disparate actresses. As someone once nearly said: ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for content.

First of all, this is a beautiful film to watch. The black and white photography is sharp enough to carve out details in the skin of the actresses who all play a single sex worker called 'Angie'. At important moments the black and white is soft and casts shadows. It is erotic as Angie is never coloured in and slightly elusive in her shadows. A screen for projection yet the black and white illuminates her fleshiness.The plot is straightforward but the content is not. 8 different actresses speak of their experiences of sex, using the 'f' word that IMDb will beep out were it to be written here, in front of a male director who can be heard but not seen - aside from the odd shot of the set and crew. The conversation begins as an interrogation from the director to Angie. She rejects this quite quickly and becomes provocative and challenging; taking control of the interview. Angie gets the director to strip naked and masturbate.After this point the conversation relaxes into a nice to and fro that sees Angie soften and both she and the director share confidences. The film culminates, aptly, with Angie masturbating to orgasm. This ending fitted the conversation but I was not satisfied. Some important boundary seemed to have disintegrated for me.I found watching and listening to the different actresses compelling. I found what they had to say witty and at times, very illuminating. My favourites were Angie 4 and 5, I think; an older blonde woman who sported a black mac and an Asiatic woman wearing a satin night gown. Their dialogue was the most interesting as they discussed fantasy and reality and then what sex is for women and the role pain has to play. I was riveted and felt I was learning something about my own sexuality. This is one of the gifts of film.

Just watched this multi-layered indie mockumentary called Black & White & Sex. Beautifully shot in monochrome using multiple cameras with several women posing as 'Angie', a sex worker. The supposed interview talks about sex as a commodity but within parameters of morality, submission, power-play and erotism. Then it opens up into classy film noir laced with wicked humor. Unconventionally fresh as a film consciously narrated within a film, this is topnotch crotch talk and a rare Aussie gem crafted with style and a bit of acquired taste.Amongst the eight actresses who play Angie, I can't think of anyone who stands out because they are all brilliant, each carrying the discussion forward until it reaches a climax (pun unintended). The discussion itself is written and filmed as a documentary where the premise is about prostitution and all its highs and lows as a profession. We don't see the director and I suspect this was intentional. More so because the director (or the unseen) also represents us, the audience, with all our perceptions about prostitution and its moral implications (or lack of). The best part of the film is not what happens in the end, but the power-play between Angie and the director. Metaphorically, it's something like sex, where each partner takes turns in dominating the other, until both reach a 'happing ending'. The reason why this film is shot in black and white is just astounding and another metaphor that reveals itself once we arrive at the inner most layer of the discussion.Black & White & Sex is highly recommended as a brilliant film that not only tries to eliminate the taboo behind prostitution, but reiterates why it is sometimes a necessary evil. It's all about perception and what sex means to anyone watching this film, be it consummated, consensual or means to self-gratification. Best served with oysters!

This is a truly wonderful film, made in the true spirit of inventive, exciting indie filmmaking. John Winter, the director/writer of the piece (some folks would call that an 'auteur') has an impressive slate of producing credits (Rabbit Proof Fence, Doin' Time for Patsy Cline) but this is the first time he has taken charge of all the principal creative elements of a feature film - and he does an amazing job. He has assembled a truly wonderful cast of Australia's most interesting and versatile female actors, to deliver an exciting, sexy, intriguing, and riveting 90 minutes of sheer brilliance. The film is brave and unusual - challenging, yet easy to go with - I was blown away by it. The wonderful Valerie Bader is sensational, and the black and white photography adds an element to the whole piece that a colour shoot would have lost. The casting director Dina Mann (Head On, Japanese Story, Mallboy) has done a magnificent job here and deserves special mention. Go and see this film - support it - tell distributors and exhibitors to get behind this film - the Australian film industry desperately NEEDS unique films like this to drag it out of its torpor.