Sweeter, funnier, and kinkier than Fifty Shades of Grey

For anyone in a tizzy over the innocuous and mentally challenged Fifty Shades, allow me to direct your attention to older films that are both sweeter, funnier, and most certainly kinkier than that fan-fiction mommy porn. Personal Services (England, 1987, Vestron Pictures) stars the inimitable Julie Walters (Educating Rita). Based on a true story, this comedy is full of heart. Walters plays a single mother who enters the sex business out of desperation but soon creates an empire and a family. Through mastering her trade, she develops self-confidence and ends up happier and healthier than ever.

In Preaching to the Perverted (England, 1997, First Look), an ambitious young man enters a sort of fetish Thunderdome with the goal of shutting it down, but ends up falling for the mistress in charge. All my favorite kinky films have strong female characters that are communicative and emotionally stable; kinky behavior presented as safe, sane, and consensual; and “happy endings” all around.