Peach Award Winners Series: Interviewing Jenna Review

Reviewed by Nat Hocken  on  2/10/2003

If you’re not careful, the “Interviewing Jenna” disc will drive you crazy. It’s one of those “interactive” jobs that doesn’t even have a “Play” button. What it has instead is three main sections—Just Jenna, Interview Jenna, and Jenna’s Staff—and there wouldn’t be anything wrong with that except that the menu comes up with the first of these, Just Jenna, selected. That’s a problem because if you choose that route, you wind up circling back on the action a couple of times. I may be old-fashioned, but I think the option of seeing the movie in order ought to come first. Here, that option comes second. (The decision to put Just Jenna first must have been based on the argument that if the sex doesn’t begin right away, viewers will tune out. Call me crazy, but it seems to me anyone putting on a movie called “Interviewing Jenna” isn’t going to tune out if it starts with an interview.)

Sadly, the menu is the least of this film’s problems. According to the liner notes on the boxcover, “Your first assignment for Peach Magazine takes you into the secret life of superstar Jenna Jameson.” Secret life—that must be a euphemism for “fictionalized life,” though I would have appreciated knowing it in advance. Jenna’s “staff” is made up of her maid, her assistant, her bartender, and her sister—all of whom are random porn chicks and none of whom have any professional relationship with Jenna other than appearing with her in this film. And one of them, her sister, is simply Jenna in a red wig. If I’d wanted fantasy, I would have watched “Dream Quest.”

“Once you arrive at her secluded hideaway,” the liner notes continue, “Jenna gives you an all access tour of her home.” Well, she walks you through a handful of rooms in somebody’s mansion, anyway, but its seclusion is open to question. Jenna tells reporter Kendall that the neighbors are so close and the fences so low that they can watch her sunbathing in her backyard. Much funnier, though, is a segment in which Jenna points out some old vases that supposedly belonged to her great-great-great-great step-aunt, who was, she says, “very important” to her. Trouble is, she can’t remember the woman’s name. That’s okay, though, because the cameraman can’t manage to shoot the vases anyway.

Maybe the menu-makers were on to something, after all, when they put the Interview Jenna option second: the interview itself might be reason enough to tune out. Intrepid reporter Kendall, flustered with her assignment and the proximity of the great Jenna Jameson, can manage only a series of idiotic questions along the lines of where Jenna shops and who she likes to shop with. If she was a real reporter, it might be funny. What makes it so ridiculous is that Kendall is playing a part and this is the best the filmmakers could come up with. The interview ends with Jenna convincing Kendall to do a “teasing” scene with her. This scene is the second in the Just Jenna segment.

Movies don’t get much dumber than this one and viewers should be mindful of its teasing nature. “Mature Rated,” the boxcover says, “Contains Full Nudity.” And that’s all it contains. There are worse things in life than looking at a nude Jenna Jameson, don’t get me wrong; but one’s attraction to her has to border on the fetishistic for this film to be satisfying. The girls in a “Playboy” video have less dancing (that is, stripping) experience than Jenna, yet they look more polished than she does here. Of course, they’ve got more talented filmmakers around them to cover up any awkwardness. Otherwise, this film is comparable to “Playboy”: Jenna (and the other girls) gyrate and rub themselves without ever looking like they mean it. The Jenna/Kendall scene is the only girl/girl scene in this all-girl movie. It’s as tepid as all the others. When are filmmakers going to realize that kissing is allowed in softcore?

All the members of Jenna’s “staff” do their turns in front of the camera, and though they’re all attractive enough, only one scene stands out, and it is one of Jenna’s. It’s a poolside tease that begins with Jenna in a white bikini. She looks especially hot in this scene, which compensates somewhat for the lack of any real action.

I hope that doesn’t sound like a recommendation. Yet one’s expectations make a difference. I expected a documentary and got second-rate fantasy. Having read this review, you might be in a better position to appreciate this film. Just don’t say you weren’t warned.