A Fun Workplace Comedy Movie… About Porn

Yeah, this feels just a little meta for me…

Hey Fleshbot fans! Occasionally I do watch something that isn’t porn, and this time I’ve found a movie that isn’t porn, but is about porn, and about working in porn journalism aka the adult entertainment industry. That’s right-- Spread, a Tubi original movie, which is available on that free streaming channel, debuted recently, so let’s check it out!

As the movie opens, we meet Ruby (Elizabeth Gillies), who is an aspiring journalist and a self-described feminist. She’s also newly single, broke, unemployed, and the parental gravy train is starting to dry up so she takes a temp agency’s assignment at Spread magazine, a fictional dying adult publication, supposedly only for one day, but we all know it’s not going to be just the one day in these kind of movies. Ruby meets quite the cast of characters among her co-workers and her boss Frank Ferretti (Harvey Keitel), who is stuck in the past, reveling in the glory days of the publication. You’ve got a lot of your usual office comedy tropes including hippie dippie Prudence, weird and creepy Nelson, old timer Hank, and douchebag-in-chief Leslie and of course there’s her only attractive male co-worker named Thomas (Keith Walker), and you know she’s going to smash that, because they of course hate each other initially. Oh, also her Dad (Diedrich Bader) is randomly ecstatic that she’s working for Spread and weirdly insinuates himself into her work environment.

The plot of Spread reminds me of a smuttier version of one of favorite guilty pleasure movies 13 Going On 30, where the plucky heroine must help redesign the magazine where she works because it’s circling the drain and she’s kind of the only person on the staff who is really invested in fixing things. Much like 13 Going On 30’s Jenna but less literally, Ruby is a mental adolescent and immature in a lot of ways as well as idealistic. She has actual hope that the changes will save the company, rather than everyone else who is just too cynical and burnt out to affect a real shift, so she pours all of her efforts into the last ditch effort to save the company. In Spread, Ruby’s pluckiness comes out of her desperation to have meaning in her life and keep an income rolling in. Ruby’s idea is to create an app which will bring the magazine readers into the 21st century by showing them porn content online as well as in print. Ruby grapples with her feminist ideals in the film and actually begins to realize that sex work is perfectly legitimate and empowering for some women. Does her plan work? What do you think? I won’t spoil you any further!

This is another good entry in an apparent subgenre of light and funny mainstream comedies about porn (some of which may be coming to a Throwback Thursday near you!) and is just a lighthearted comedy on the whole. Definitely pop some popcorn and check it out over on Tubi!