NAKED AMBITION (2025) – Review

Here’s a terrific new release that dispels that old, certainly now outdated, thought that watching a documntary was “homework”. This one’s a brisk, breezy romp through the fringes of pop culture that makes a sharp turn into an exploration of the changing attitudes towards the societal roles of women. So, yes, sex does play a big part. Mainly, it’s a portrait of an artist (that label may have irked and offended the intellectual elite then, but few would question it now). That artist in question is a photographer named Bunny (born Linnea) Yeagar who actually went from being a model in front of the camera to staging and snapping pics of, sometimes referred to as, “pin-up queens”. These ladies were usually clad in bikinis (which Bunny popularized), exotic attire, and sometimes in the “all together,” which gives a multiple meaning to this doc’s title, NAKED AMBITION.

The locale for Bunny’s life story quickly shifts from her birth in a chilly Pittsburgh suburb to sun-kissed Miami in the late 1940s. After winning several beauty pageants, she became a very busy photo model for several magazines and newspapers originating from Florida. That “ambition” started early as she embraced the big swimsuit sensation, the bikini, and enhanced them with her own design (one was comprised of plastic daisies). A new career opened up when she took a night class in photography at a vocational school. Bunny began taking pics of herself (perhaps these are the earliest “selfies”), then directed her BFF Maria Stinger (now there’s a great model moniker) in some very popular “men’s Magazine” spreads before expanding her “roster”. Seems that women were more comfortable with her behind the lens, rather than the leering men who formed “camera clubs”. Then, in 1954, through her photo mentor Irving Claw (another great name), Bunny met her muse, the bubbly brunette with the “bangs”, Bettie Page. These pics of Ms. Page, especially those taken at a wild animal “safari” park, became staples of pop culture when she was “rediscovered” through the Dave Stevens art of the Rocketeer graphic novels. Those shots attracted Hugh Hefner, and soon Bunny was a staple of his fledgling Playboy magazine. In the doc, we’re introduced to Bunny’s first husband, Arthur, a former cop, who becomes her business partner and the father of their two daughters, Cherilu and Lisa. We learn how Bunny took side “gigs” in the movies (with Sinatra) and later crooned as a lounge singer. But with the huge cultural shift in the late 60s, the public passed up the camp “cheesecake” for pornography (even parting ways with Playboy) and Bunny was adrift until a new appreciation in the late 1990s that led to new hardcover book collections and several gallery shows (at the Warhol). In the film’s epilogue, we’re told that Bunny shot on film right up until her passing at age 85 in 2014.

Director Dennis Scholl and Kareem Tabsch are two talented cinema “tour guides” for this chronicling of a remarkable life. Yes, there are the usual “talking heads”, but those interviewed offer some great insight into Bunny’s technique, including several working photogs, historians, and the modern “glamour gal” icon Dita Von Teese. And there’s some archival interview, though Larry King’s “chestnut” tale of a fan encounter doesn’t add much, ditto for the recollections of Hef. However, the audio-only stories from the real Page are quite engaging, as are the contrasting views of Bunny’s daughters (Lisa embraces her mom’s legacy while the more conservative Cherilu is somewhat embarrassed). The best parts of the docs are the incredible collages of the campy cheesecake pics that somehow still resonate a sweet innocence since most of the models are smiling, some even in “mid-laff”, conveying the high spirits of those optimistic days nearly 70 years ago. The filmmakers also address the big societal changes, first with Bunny’s friendship with a famous photo “buff”, Sammy Davis, Jr, who had to hide in the back seat when the two cruised around Miami before a “model shoot”. And later Bunny tries to get more “provocative” with the free-spirited “hippie chicks” in the late 60s. Plus, we get to view some grainy, faded home movie footage (I imagined the film disintegrating right after the digital transfer) and some adorably stiff and awkward films of an “actual photo session”. Scholl and Tabsch don’t shy away from the “tough times” as we learn of the demise of Bunny’s depressed hubby and their trumped-up obscenity bust. Luckily, the story ends on a triumphant note, despite the clash between the daughters and some estate problems, as Bunny gets her well-earned praise and appreciation from her peers. Her story, as told in the engaging NAKED AMBITION, is pretty close to “picture perfect”.

3 out of 4

NAKED AMBITION is now playing in select theatres