As a film about the realities of sex work in present-day Paris, Elles stumbles. The director/writer Malgorzata Szumowska, a Pole, contributes almost no new information about the current condition of “the world’s oldest profession” and avoids examining the ugly side of this profession with any depth. So why suggest it? Because the cinematography, lighting, editing, and two performances (Juliette Binoche as a reporter working a story about two students/sex workers, and Joanna Kulig as one of those students/sex workers) reach the region of great cinema. In fact, it’s the ordinary moments, rather than the graphic sex scenes, that are riveting. (See Movie Times)