A Pleasant Surprise

I hadn't heard of this movie, but came across the trailer and decided to check it out and was pleasantly surprised.

It's about a topic that isn't discussed in the mainstream of American culture, which our government's many misadventures in Latin America and how it has effected the populations there.

In this case, it's the 1965 coup of the Dominican Republic that's the backdrop of a brothel run by a hard as nails madam named Judith, who struggles to keep her girls inline in the middle of a civil war and initially tries to stay neutral in the fight between the nationalists and the Americans, but eventually finds herself and her brothel in the middle of the battle.

Yes, there are some explicit sex scenes here, but if you're watching a movie about a brothel, you're probably not that worried about a little sex.

There's also a lot of violence, as tends to happen in movies about wartime.

But mostly, the movie's about the brave women, who fought to maintain their autonomy while being thrust in the middle of a Cold War era conflict.