The films showing sex workers in a new light

New films like Good Luck to You, Leo Grande are challenging cinematic tropes about sex workers. It's a refreshing change, writes Rafa Sales Ross.

In the 1990 classic Pretty Woman, when Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) first picks up Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) in the luxury silver sportscar he borrowed from his lawyer, there is an implication he is somewhat oblivious to the fact that the woman is a sex worker. The businessman, a New Yorker lost amid the vast highways of Los Angeles, is initially only interested in directions. In Sophie Hyde's Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, which is released this week, there is no such confusion. When the doorbell of her hotel suite rings, Nancy Stokes (Emma Thompson) knows who's at the other side of the door: Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack), a sex worker she hired online...