Confessions of a Go-Go Girl

source: Confessions of a Go-Go Girl

The movie does depict this life. What starts out as a part-time job or an adventure becomes a habit for easy money. Many women do go work more hardcore clubs to earn higher tips and have a hard time leaving the "life". School usually goes by the wayside. Sad thing about the movie is how it is so true how the men of the family are quick to judge their own daughters and inflict cruelty when they, themselves, are the first ones at the clubs. Of course, they have their excuses of how they "only" come to the strip clubs to entertain clients or for bachelor parties. The brother who was there for his own bachelor party was the first to call his own sister a "dog". I can see why the friend was hardened by the work and aimed to steal & get what she could from the men who pay for sexual entertainment. The double standards exists and it comes from our own homes such as with the young lady. Her family was quick to extort money from her when she did not want to attend law school but then scoffed her even though she more than "paid them back". I wish the movie did have an ending where she was more empowered rather than groveling at her family's feet or the acting teacher's door.

Any film title starting with the words "Confessions of a..." conjures up memories of that (generally pretty feeble) series of British softcore sex comedies from the 1970s, but "Confessions of a Go-Go Girl", a more recent (2008) American-Canadian film, is not a horse from that particular stable. It is ostensibly set in Chicago but was mostly filmed in Canada, although a few genuine Chicago locations appear for the sake of authenticity. The main character is Jane McCoy, a girl from a well-heeled upper middle-class family, who decides to become an actress, much to the disgust of her parents who do not consider acting a proper career and would much rather she became a lawyer. They refuse to fund her studies at drama school, leaving her in financial difficulties, so when her friend Angela suggests an "easy way" to make extra money Jane is all too ready to listen. The job Angela has in mind is, of course, go-go dancing at a local club. This development might suggest that the film will go down one of two routes, becoming either (Route 1) a sex comedy along the lines of the late and unlamented British "Confessions" series ("Jane and Angela get up to all sorts of randy antics with their male customers") or (Route 2) a lurid exposé of the dark side of the adult entertainment industry ("Jane and Angela slide further and further down the slippery slope of moral depravity and come to a bad end"). Well, this film is certainly not a comedy. As far as Angela is concerned it follows Route 2 without deviating from the roadmap. The club where she and Jane start out is quite tame by the standards of the adult industry; the girls dance in their underwear, but nudity and toplessness are forbidden, as is touching the punters or allowing them to touch you. Angela realises that more money can be made by dancing in those clubs which offer raunchier forms of entertainment and, predictably, goes tumbling down the aforesaid slippery slope into drug addiction and prostitution before coming to the inevitable bad end. She dies on the operating table during a breast-enhancement operation following an adverse reaction between the anaesthetic and all those drugs in her system, making the film a very twenty-first century morality tale against the sin of vanity. Or at least the vanity of wanting big breasts. And Jane? Well Jane may be a go-go dancer but she is still at heart a sweet young thing; indeed, part of her appeal for a certain type of punter is her ability to combine sexiness with cuteness. (It helps that Chelsea Hobbs, the actress who plays her, is more girl-next-door than Hollywood glamour queen). Of course, all does not go well even with Jane. She believes that her work is beneficial to her acting career because it enables her to explore facets of her personality which would otherwise remain hidden, but this sort of logic cuts no ice with her drama teacher, a devotee of High Culture who cannot tolerate her students having any involvement with Low Culture. (And in her eyes go-go dancing is right down at the bargain basement end of the market). Jane also further alienates her parents when her brother, quite ignorant of his sister's way of earning her pin money, happens to choose her club for his stag do and walks through the door with his friends while she is on stage. To make matters worse, her father is with them. Ignoring Jane's argument that her working in such an establishment is morally no worse than his patronising it, the stern paterfamilias goes into "Never darken my doors again!" mode. Nevertheless, Jane has enough strength of character not to follow Angela down the primrose path to destruction and, for her, all ends happily. "Confessions of a Go-Go Girl", actually, is not a bad film, certainly not as bad as I feared it might be. It might be full of clichés, especially in its treatment of Angela's story, but Hobbs makes Jane a likeable heroine and there is enough material here to provide an entertaining hour-and-a-half. 6/10

I liked the movie but haven't seen it on Lifetime in a long time. Wish they'd show it once in a while

I don't usually write reviews, but I watched a movie recently that struck a nerve with me. After reading the reviews posted by others, I wanted to say how I felt about it. Several of the reviews were to the negative with adjectives like "sleaze." I suppose if that is what you look for, that is what you will find. Let me tell you what I found in the Lifetime presentation of Confessions of A Go Go Girl. I have been a fan of movies all my life. Most of them were entertaining; a few were so well done they thrilled you. I believe that many, if not most, people who enjoy films get their enjoyment by watching the actors portray their roles. The more challenging that role is, the more interesting the movie becomes. That is what I look for, and that is what I found in this film. In the last few years, I have been disappointed in the language used, in the descending degree of violence, and in the pathetic lack of good solid scripts that are backed up by real acting ability. That kind of ability is just as rare as those good solid scripts. So many pictures, today, miss the mark completely in these categories. They play to an audience that would do well to watch a film without the street language, and the violence, that is the product of a first rate script acted out by actors with genuine ability. Movies with a message, a moral, that will be recognized and used by those of us in need of a lesson in life. This "Go GO Girl" movie is one of those productions. It had no sorry language, or violence. The script was, to me, very carefully crafted. It brought out its characters as they would be expected to be in real life. It created situations and emotions that people today have to deal with every day. It presented a moral message that could be found by someone in need. That script was backed up by a cast of people who did an excellent job---every one of them. I was especially impressed by Chelsea Hobbs. For a twenty-four year old, her part in that script was challenging---very challenging! She had to be: a daughter who asked her father,"what are you doing here" backed up by, "every woman in here is someone's daughter!" A daughter to her mother who asked her to explain the dancing. I don't think anyone could have answered that question better than Chelsea did. She did it with honesty, but she did it with--absolute sincerity. A sister that was called a "dog" by her brother, and still held her grace. A deceptive, but still loving, girl friend to her boyfriend. She was a friend to Sarah, when Sarah was weak and on the skids and thought only of herself. She had two real friends in that script; Donna was her friend and so was her boss played to perfection by Corbin Bernsen. All these different personalities required a different response--a different role to play. Add to that the challenge of bringing to completion the moral presented by the film, and it is quite an accomplishment. I don't know how anyone who watched this movie could say that Chelsea Hobbs was anything but brilliant in her portrayal of Jane McCoy and the roller-coaster life she lived through. The scene, near the end, of her telling her "truth" to her acting class was--to me--very impressive. To Chelsea and the cast and crew of "Confessions of A Go GO Girl"--thank you--for a job well done. RFRF

well, it wasn't authentic in terms of the club setting(the clothes stay on) and the parents were a huge bore but we got to see some pretty women, and surprisingly Chelsea has a funky body and slinky moves and when she parts her hair down the middle with long straight bangs (rather than the side part, girl-next-door look) she is pretty sexy. Her three main dance scenes lead us to believe that she has had some dance instruction in her background, and that she was comfortable putting it all (well, most....) out there for us to see. Her stripping (well, clothes removal) was enticing, too- she's got good instincts. So, getting to see her stretch out and look (and apparently get into a groove) as a sexy dancer made it worth watching, and the other two female leads are fine looking as well. For guys, its a nice diversion. Too bad we couldn't see a bit more from all 3 of them.

Set in the Windy City, "Confessions of a Go-Go Girl" tells the saga of young Jane McCoy, who opts out of law school to pursue her dream of acting. But when her parents disown her for following her own path, Jane chooses to work in a go-go joint, feels the rush, and becomes caught up in the new persona of her stage name Dylan. In an intriguing moment in the film, Jane's acting teacher assigns the class a project in which each performer must adopt a completely new persona that will affect the interpretation of their monologues. Of course, this is the exact experience that is happening to Jane in her new identity as Dylan. Some of choices made by the screenwriters were not credible, especially the inflated tips that Jane and her friend Angela made at a sleazy club. First, the male clients did not appear to be affected by the booze during the routines. The clear impression was that Jane was raking in thousands of dollars that was not apparent at all in their $1 tips. A more realistic portrait of the work was seen in the fate of Angela, who lost everything due to the pressures of trying to sustain herself long-term as a *. The filmmakers wanted to depict a protagonist who was breaking out of her cocoon and undergoing a learning experience while working at go-go. In this regard, the film received a boost from the excellent performer playing Jane/Dylan. The ending monologue she delivered as the culmination of her acting class was thoughtful and moving. By the end of the film, it is not clear what the future holds for Jane. Will she playing the Goodman and Second City? Or waiting tables? Will her relationship with Eric really work out after he has callously humiliated her, then brings her flowers in an attempt to atone? At least, Jane feels a new confidence about her identity as a person. Which is more than one could say for her feckless parents, who bled her dry for demanding repayment of her deposit for law school.

The story was interesting a bit forced at times. We never truly got a sense of how repressed she was or for how long. Not enough time was given to explore that side, so we didn't really buy into it. Chelsea is a very good actress, however the final stage scene struck me as very stiff and didn't really portray the inner change the character came to describe in her monologue. I never got the sense that she honestly felt what she was describing, but rather simply described it like reading a passage from a book or script. The ending is what I hated. A woman who described herself as "taking the confidence" her gogo persona had given her, then when faced with an old boyfriend who dumped her, reverts back to the insecure girl she once was. It lacked the honesty of what her experiences were supposed to have transformed her into. I'd have rather have seen her offer him the "opportunity" to win her back. THAT would have been true to a character who had discovered and understood the power of her own sexuality. A person who found and exercised her new found confidence and didn't need her man, but rather wanted him to want her for who she became on equal terms.

Jane McCoy (Chelsea Hobbs) surprises her upper class parents by abandoning law school plans to go study acting. They cut her off. Her boyfriend Eric Baldwin tries to be supportive. Angela Lucas (Sarah Carter) befriends her who turns out to be a go-go dancer at a club owned by Nick Harvey (Corbin Bernsen). Donna Mercer (Rachel Hunter) is an older dancer and single mom. Jane starts out dancing to pay for head shots and to gain confidence. Angela starts going downhill after her boyfriend steals all of her money. Jane follows her down with drugs and actual stripping. The actresses are good. There is a lot of sexy dancing for a Lifetime movie but there is no nudity. In fact, any unrealistic aspects of this movie has to be put down to the fact that it is a TV movie. It's not a gritty realistic portrayal of stripping. I doubt the girls could make much money without showing anything in 2008. The emotional journey is fine but it's a little too cliché. This would work better as a gritty indie.

I Can Not Believe How Great This Movie Is, And They Stayed Extremely On Point Of What The Reality Is Regarding The Lifestyle, Fact/Fictional Usually Start That Way But Then Not Only Lose The Real Reality Usually At The Ending Or Just Within The Entire Movie. I Think I Have Watched This Movie Over a Million Times And Will Continue Too, It Keeps My Mind And Past As Time Goes By With a Refreshed Reality Slap ! Actually I Owe a Big Thank You For That !!