A candid but ultimately frustrating documentary look at the modern-day experience of escorts in the United States, American Courtesans both benefits and, later, suffers mightily from its informal, conversational style, centered as it is around the digressive recollections and asides of executive producer/interviewer Kristen DiAngelo, herself a former prostitute still active in the sex industry. Heartbreak and contented curiosity abound in this subcultural curio, but with no sense of flow that might lend it a honest recommendation.

American Courtesans takes as its interview subjects a spectrum of sex workers, some of whom are previously personally known to DiAngelo and some of whom are not. There’s an escort who also shoots adult movies; a former real estate agent who now offers up the “girlfriend experience” (plus some bondage, if needed); a woman who talks about her past as a sex caregiver (think The Sessions); and a variety of prostitutes whose experiences range from streetwalking and brothels to more discreet bookings. The stories are often shocking (one woman was working in a whorehouse as a 14-year-old) and sometimes bizarre in their illuminations of wounded logic (a mother turning to prostitution instead of going on welfare, to provide for her son).

Unfortunately, American Courtesans doesn’t have a grounded point-of-view or sense of streamlined purpose; it lurches to and fro, alighting on anecdotes and settling for garish shock when a more poignant knockout punch is easily within its reach. The chief culprit is director James Johnson, who oversees an extraordinarily muddled and misguided technical package; the film is arbitrarily edited, in a fashion that repeatedly undercuts otherwise significantly emotional reminiscences. For the full, original review, from ShockYa, click here. (Centex Enterprises, unrated, 86 minutes)