But First

It’s hard to generalize about a multibillion-dollar industry that has existed nearly as long as film itself, headquartered for decades in the San Fernando Valley over the Hollywood Hills from the mainstream Hollywood studios.

When Hollywood looks to its Valley neighbors, it often does so by sugarcoating things — treating the industry as silly and amusing — or playing it for horror, with the implication that shooting explicit scenes leads inevitably to making films of people getting killed. (The Ti West movie X, above, takes a rare neutral view — people get killed, but not because they’re in the industry.)

The following films are noteworthy for their blunt presentation of the industry (though a couple do latch on to the murder trope). For the most part, they present the industry as an underground, unregulated economy where some people get along just fine — but others find themselves exploited and disappointed. We think that seems pretty accurate.