Adult entertainer Sasha Grey makes her
feature film debut in Steven Soderbergh's new film "The Girlfriend Experience".
Miss Grey, 22, plays Christine/Chelsea, a high-priced
Manhattan call girl in the film. (Photo: Magnolia Pictures)
MOVIE REVIEW
The Girlfriend Experience
With "Girlfriend", Soderbergh + 20 = Sex,
Truth And Vérité
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Friday, May 29, 2009
Steven Soderbergh has now made 20 films in 20 years, starting with "sex, lies
and videotape" in 1989. His latest, "The Girlfriend Experience", released
last week in San Francisco and numerous other U.S. cities, is a perfect
symmetrical bookend for the 20th chapter in his feature filmmaking career, with
adult entertainer Sasha Grey front and center in her feature film debut as
Chelsea, a Manhattan high-class call girl better known as Christine to her
boyfriend Chris (Chris Santos), a gym instructor and business manager. Set
in New York City in the weeks prior to the 2008 U.S. presidential election, "The
Girlfriend Experience" spotlights the here-and-now of a brutal economic
recession and mini-depression, one that naturally provides a lot of tension and
uncertainty for all. Presented out of chronological order, the film can
best be described as a look at male anxiety through female eyes, and in a story
where virtually every man is seen panicking about his deteriorating financial
stability, so too is almost every man examining the currency of a woman's
sexuality. As written by David Levien and Brian Koppelman, "Girlfriend
Experience" contains realistic adult dialogue and situations that are
emotionally honest if nothing else. These elements and some of the
stunning cinematography are the most interesting and arresting things about Mr.
Soderbergh's film.
Shot in cinema verite style, "Girlfriend" skirts the edges of pretension but
works for its intimacy and autobiographical feel. Miss Grey, the Adult
Video Network Porn Entertainer of the Year in 2008, could be speaking about
herself as her character Christine recounts things about her personality and
experiences as a call girl. Miss Grey (who was two when the director
debuted with "sex, lies") impresses with her completely
natural performance and is seen in her nubile full-frontal nakedness for a brief
moment, and does things with her hair in this film that are far more sexy and
erotic than any of the highly explicit things you can watch her do online.
Christine vividly summarizes her experiences as call girl Chelsea with her male
dates in droll, diary-like fashion, detailing the brand names of shoes, lingerie
and accessories she wears on her dates. After all, she's a commodity: a
private dancer, a material girl extraordinaire, at 22. We hardly know what
makes Christine/Chelsea tick but we do know that she's lonely and a touch naïve,
what with her attendant insecurities.
Meanwhile, Chris -- who at first appears effeminate -- has tolerated Christine's
handsome living as a call girl and has a conversation about open relationships
on a jet with his work colleagues or male-bonding buddies (it doesn't matter
which.) This repeatedly-visited Greek chorus of men sounding off on the
economy and women is a wholly unnecessary part of the film -- these specific
scenes are shot in an annoying high contrast handheld digital video -- and is
the only misstep that Mr. Soderbergh, donning the familiar alias of Peter
Andrews as the film's cinematographer, makes. There are echoes of the
director's film "Full Frontal" in "Girlfriend", with a male journalist (Marc
Jacobson) wanting to get close to Christine, and another man (Glenn Kenny), a
self-described "erotic connoisseur", who has a blog reviewing the sexual
performances of the top call girls in New York City, wanting a taste of the
action as well. Be that as it may, at a time in the world where severe
lack of money fucks everyone, Christine/Chelsea at least does the smartest if
emptiest thing: fucks everyone for their money.
(Sometimes she just sits on the couch and listens, or gives a man a sensual
hug.)
"The Girlfriend Experience" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of
America for sexual content, nudity and language. The film's running time
is one hour and 18 minutes.
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