The Girlfriend Experience Information

The Girlfriend Experience is a 2009 American experimental drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring then-active adult film actress Sasha Grey. It was shot in New York City, and a rough cut was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009. The film has also been made available on Amazon Video on Demand as a pre-theatrical rental.

Soderbergh mentioned Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert and Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers as influences. The film is also notable because it was produced for $1.3 million and was shot with a relatively inexpensive Red One camera.

Synopsis

A drama set in the days leading up to the 2008 presidential election, and centered on a high-end Manhattan call girl meeting the challenges of her boyfriend, her clients, and her work.

Chelsea (real name Christine) is a New York City escort who specializes in offering the girlfriend experience. She finds that lately her clients are spending less and less on her services, and are troubled by the financial crisis, a topic they raise frequently in her company. She is also interviewed by a journalist, who quizzes her about her work and personal life. She goes from client to client performing her services.

Cast

• Sasha Grey as Christine, alias Chelsea
• Chris Santos as Chris
• Philip Eytan as Philip
• Timothy Davis as Tim
• Peter Zizzo as Zizzo
• Glenn Kenny as "The Erotic Connoisseur"
• Vincent Dellacera as Chelsea's Driver
• Kimberly Magness as Happy Hour
• Mark Jacobson as Interviewer

Reception

The film received a 64% on the critical summation site Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus being: "Steven Soderbergh's latest lo-fi production is strikingly crafted but emotionally vague".

Roger Ebert rated the film four out of four stars, saying "This film is true about human nature. It clearly sees needs and desires. It is not universal, but within its particular focus, it is unrelenting."

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Kyle Smith of the New York Post awarded the film 1 star out of 4, saying "Time for another of Steven Soderbergh's 'experimental,' i.e., half-assed, films." David Edelstein of New York Magazine complained that, "Most of the dialogue is listless, and no matter how much Soderbergh snips and stitches, the movie is a corpse with twitching limbs." Luke Davies, critic for The Monthly, wrote that the film is "disposable and pretentious" and "is shot sombrely and austerely, in a style that might be described as 'vacuous chic'" and concluded that "as a film in which a porn star's presence is a fundamental marketing hook, it is masturbation."

Television series

See The Girlfriend Experience (TV series) for more information In June 2014, Starz committed to a 13-episode order for a new television series, based on the film, with Soderbergh and Philip Fleishman as executive producers. Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz co-wrote and directed all 13 episodes. Sasha Grey and her character were not included though the main character uses the same name(s). Riley Keough stars as the new lead described by Soderbergh as "a new character on a new trajectory". While Starz did announce that the program will return for a second season; well-received lead actress from Season 1, Riley Keough, will not return in Season 2 of The Girlfriend Experience.