By David Baldwin
If you hear the name Stormy Daniels, what do you think of? Her career as an adult entertainer in front of and behind the camera, or her involvement in a legal shitstorm with the former President of the United States? STORMY demystifies the woman behind those headlines, and chronicles the immediate fallout from her “hush money” payment becoming international news, the on-going legal saga she remains intrinsically attached to and the turmoil and toll it has taken on her personal life.
Whether you know all the facts or not, watching STORMY is a riveting and sobering experience – not just because of how aggravating it is, but by how harrowing and emotional it quickly becomes. Daniels is a give-no-fucks firecracker at the start and by the end, she is a visibly strained, shell of a woman who has gone through hell and fears for her safety.
Though Daniels is refreshingly candid and holds nothing back, the Documentary spends most of its time focusing on the legal shenanigans and sparring and not enough on who she is as an Entertainer and more to the point, as a person. We get glimpses into her dance tours, television appearances, her love for horses and her private life. They all feel fleeting though, especially when so many of the talking head interviews are journalists just speaking about what happened because of the payment details going public. What they discuss and what is shown is interesting and vital, but the Film is called STORMY and needed to be more about her and a whole lot less about him.
Stormy screens at SXSW’24:
Mar 8 at 5:15PM at Stateside Theatre
Mar 13 at 11:45AM at Alamo Lamar 5
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