Marcus Baldini: Confessions of a Brazilian Call Girl (2011) Don't be deceived by knee jerk left wing feminist and religious right rants about this movie. It is not a hymn to prostitution but it is in no way a critique of the "miserable" lives of escorts. Prostitution was a choice for Raquel/Bruna - a way of realizing her individual freedom and finding and constructing her own identity independent of the social role imposed on her by her family and abusive step brother. Old guard philosophers along with the Sartre-loving general public will recognize this as a very existentialist theme with echoes of Simone-Camille Sans. The other plus of this picture is the transformation of Raquel/Bruna from an awkward self-loathing high school teen to a sexy outgoing party girl who could service eight men at a time. The next transition is to her fall through cocaine and what we might call her self-redemption when she reasserts the reason she became a prostitute in the first place and indeed why she started her blog and would eventually become an award winning writer - to reiterate, her freedom as an individual and the need to create herself. Not only Secco's performance but the work of the entire production crew including the hair and make-up artists, costume designers, stylists and, of course the director Marcus Baldini were responsible for her remarkable multiple transformations. The only criticism I might have is that the languid pace of the first half of the film should have been retained in the second half dealing with her rise and fall and self-realization. The end seemed a bit rushed. The standard lesbo left and religious right argument that prostitution is not victimless is effectively undermined by this movie. The lower class prostitutes are not depicted as miserable and exploited (There is no pimp, only a feckless and underachieving madam - a detail that is a closer reflection of reality than the cartoonish pimps we so often see in the mass media). Instead they are displayed lovingly, so to speak, in their conflicts and foibles. They are no more miserable than other low wage workers. I kept expecting a lesbian scene which would have been de rigueur if the picture was intended solely as entertainment. Left wing feminists and their religious right allies probably have a hard time wrapping their heads around the fact that an escort can actually love men - men of all shapes, sizes and colors.The extremely weak last resort argument that the the prostitute hurts her family is also undone by the events depicted. Raquel/Bruna's family deserved no consideration. Her adoptive parents were indifferent zombies and her step brother a brutal sadist. She realizes her lively creative personality by way of prostitution and her blog. If the family doesn't like that, well, that's their problem.