"The Ranch" is the 90 min pilot for a Showtime tv series that sadly, disappointingly, heart-crushingly, never happened. The first thing you should know about this movie is that it is not, not, NOT, not even trying to be, porn or even erotic in any way, shape or form. Did I mention that this isn't porn? Oh by the way, this is not porn.
Good, you made it past the 1st paragraph of my review which means you're actually interesting in this movie for its plot, acting, characters and themes. On that account, you won't be disappointed. The premise of "The Ranch" may seem like a cliché (a bunch of babes working at a brothel, trying to deal with the stigma and judgmental attitudes toward women in the sex profession while lookin for love in all the wrong places), but this production gives it an interesting, unpredictable, and very human treatment that will pull you in from the opening scene to the ending and leave you wanting much more. How? The characters.
Being a pilot, it spends a good amount of time setting up the characters, their personalities, hidden demons and complex interactions with each other. This means it doesn't have a lightning-paced, thrill-ride, twisty-turny plot, but instead it feels more like a slow-boiling drama that keeps getting deeper as we get more invested in each person's role. There is "Shayna" who quits the Ranch to marry a fine upstanding gentleman, thinking she can get away with never telling him about her past. There is "Taylor" who is in a dirty custody battle over a young daughter who idolizes her but whose father thinks she's slime. There is "Velvet" who is an ex-child actress whose life is hitting rock bottom, and half a dozen other well-written characters, each excellently and believably played.
While sexuality is the the underlying theme of "The Ranch", it's not a primary focus. Here sexuality is simply the "McGuffin" (a term Hitchcock coined to refer to the thing in a movie that everyone is fighting over). And you realize that this is a metaphor for any secret "shame" that elicits scowls and sideward glances in society. Sex scenes themselves are handled as mostly comedy (with some hilarious gags that made me LOL) and that was an unexpected direction, but totally fitting when you realize that the filmmakers are deliberately trying to downplay the eroticism so we can focus on the human stories.
There are even a dark themes such as the very young looking prostitute who deliberately entices would-be pedophiles and child molesters, at one point making the controversial point: "it's better that they *** me than their 10 year old daughter!"
If "The Ranch" had been made into a regular tv series it would've been a smash hit. Perhaps it was 5-10 years ahead of its time, because challenging "anti-hero" dramas like this didn't take root until shows like "Breaking Bad". In any case, it's a total bummer that this is all we get, but even as a standalone teaser to an epic series, it's well worth the watch.
Good, you made it past the 1st paragraph of my review which means you're actually interesting in this movie for its plot, acting, characters and themes. On that account, you won't be disappointed. The premise of "The Ranch" may seem like a cliché (a bunch of babes working at a brothel, trying to deal with the stigma and judgmental attitudes toward women in the sex profession while lookin for love in all the wrong places), but this production gives it an interesting, unpredictable, and very human treatment that will pull you in from the opening scene to the ending and leave you wanting much more. How? The characters.
Being a pilot, it spends a good amount of time setting up the characters, their personalities, hidden demons and complex interactions with each other. This means it doesn't have a lightning-paced, thrill-ride, twisty-turny plot, but instead it feels more like a slow-boiling drama that keeps getting deeper as we get more invested in each person's role. There is "Shayna" who quits the Ranch to marry a fine upstanding gentleman, thinking she can get away with never telling him about her past. There is "Taylor" who is in a dirty custody battle over a young daughter who idolizes her but whose father thinks she's slime. There is "Velvet" who is an ex-child actress whose life is hitting rock bottom, and half a dozen other well-written characters, each excellently and believably played.
While sexuality is the the underlying theme of "The Ranch", it's not a primary focus. Here sexuality is simply the "McGuffin" (a term Hitchcock coined to refer to the thing in a movie that everyone is fighting over). And you realize that this is a metaphor for any secret "shame" that elicits scowls and sideward glances in society. Sex scenes themselves are handled as mostly comedy (with some hilarious gags that made me LOL) and that was an unexpected direction, but totally fitting when you realize that the filmmakers are deliberately trying to downplay the eroticism so we can focus on the human stories.
There are even a dark themes such as the very young looking prostitute who deliberately entices would-be pedophiles and child molesters, at one point making the controversial point: "it's better that they *** me than their 10 year old daughter!"
If "The Ranch" had been made into a regular tv series it would've been a smash hit. Perhaps it was 5-10 years ahead of its time, because challenging "anti-hero" dramas like this didn't take root until shows like "Breaking Bad". In any case, it's a total bummer that this is all we get, but even as a standalone teaser to an epic series, it's well worth the watch.