Reviewers

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an 82% positive review, with nine of eleven surveyed critics giving it a positive review; the average rating is 6.5/10.^[9] Geoff Berkshire of Variety wrote, "An intimate and ultimately harrowing peek inside the world of amateur porn, Hot Girls Wanted will shock and outrage audiences in equal measure."^[1] Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter called it a "rigorous, timely study".^[10] Jordan Hoffman of The Guardian rated it 2/5 stars and wrote, "If you were in the dark about the potential dangers for young women of employment in the porn industry, this documentary may prove instructive. For everyone else, it's an unnecessary – if salutary – reminder."^[11] Mike Hale of The New York Times described it as "a documentary with a provocative subject and title but an uncertain tone that vacillates between weary outrage and motherly concern."^[12]

Reynolds and two of his performers said that the film focuses too much on the worst-case scenarios. Regardless, Reynolds said the film has inspired young women to enter pornography.^[13]

Rashida Jones' involvement

Rashida Jones, before making this documentary, had controversies in the world of sex workers. InsideHook's Kayla Kibbe states, "Critics accused Jones of doxxing the film's subjects, exposing personal information and recycling content without their permission."^[14] Sex workers have criticised the documentary as invasion of privacy. The Daily Dot reported a quote from Mistress Matisse: "Hot Girls Wanted was not made by anyone who's actually in the sex industry, and it was very obviously planned to fulfill an agenda, and that agenda is to make the sex industry look bad."^[15] In The New York Times Ana Marie Cox interviews Jones and mentions her past comments on sex workers: "But in 2013, you wrote a pretty strident essay in Glamour against the 'pornification' of everything, where you recount using the hashtag #stopactinglikewhores."^[16]