subxerogravity If I had saw this movie when it first came out in 2009, I may think differently about it. It's interesting to me how outdated the movie feels. The story centers around a high price escort doing her job just after the finical crisis of 2007 and the 2008 election. The constant mentioning of these two events makes the conversations feel forced and not natural, which is strange considering the film came out a year after these events, events that we are still going through as I write this. The movie is cluttered and makes no sense. The editing style makes you need to watch it more than once to understand what is going on (I myself watched it twice). The only problem is, I did not find it entertaining enough to even sit through it once.Sasha Grey is not all she's cracked up to be. I've seen pron stars in mainstream movies act better. I've seen her act better in mainstream movies. I guess I should not be so harsh since this was her first mainstream event. It may have been a better idea if Soderbergh at least got better actors for his supporting cast, instead of the dry uninteresting folks that make up this one. A lot of the movie is just conversations and it looks like the actors were picked because of their grasp of the conversation topic, which was about money, rather than their capability to make this topic interesting to someone uninterested in the topic.The movie does feel like a beta test for what would become a string of movies Soderbergh would end up doing after this with the same style to it. Unless your that die hard of a Soderbergh fan I would watch every movie that came after the Girlfriend Experience instead.

HuntinPeck80 The Girlfriend Experience is almost fascinatingly awful. Not a case of 'so bad it's good', but one to chew over, to list just how many different shades of empty it featured. And then forget it forever, or until you enrol for BA Media, Social Networks and Comms at the University of Inanity.At one and the same moment, it is and is not about the financial meltdown, is and is not about commerce, about the Big Apple. It's definitely not about the 'big O'. As far as I could see, desire was not one of the themes being explored. Curious omission, wouldn't you agree.The director and his 'breakthrough' star seem determined to carry her as far from her hardcore persona as they can; in short, by making her behaviour seem fairly normal, or more accurately, how might your everyday young woman with no acting experience respond to the task of playing the role of an escort? This is why I referred to 'assisted reality': reality being the context for banal dialogue. Tedious conversation, of which this film is bursting.Sasha Grey, unsurprisingly, gives Chelsea no personality, no inner life. She listens to rich men monotone about money and their woes, her eyes glazed over, and later we hear her dispassionately relate what went on once they got back to the bedroom. Don't expect any kinky scenes and don't look forward to the sort of demented energy she habitually put into her xxx scenes. Her character, Chelsea, is vapid and wholly unbelievable as a super high class hooker, much less as someone's actual girlfriend. The man playing her boyfriend puts more energy into his performance but it is still devoid of interest.The trouble is, this isn't a documentary, an analysis of venality or the greed is good culture, but nor is it a study of eroticism or desire. So when Chelsea speaks highly of her own skills as a seductress, we can't relate to it; when an unsatisfied client rubbishes her on the web, it's all too true.To sum up, the visual style is drab and wearying, the outbursts of music jarring and irrelevant. Nobody had their heart in this project. The film's emptiness would seem to reflect the emptiness of Sasha Grey in real life, often described as glacially detached, but written up as brainy and sophisticated by idiots basing their opinion solely on what goes on her 'likes' list.Maybe it says something about the world we've moved into. Hasn't Soderbergh retired now?

tedg Soderbergh satisfies because he is fearless in a way that Herzog could never be. Herzog goes toward danger in order to capture experiences, but he relies on cinematic methods and narratives models that are safe. Indeed, he never innovates or experiments here. As a result, we get lush operas about violent nature.Soderbergh on the other hand seems ready to risk his soul, to destroy his career, to make an audience very unhappy if it allows him to surround his art. You never know; you never do. This is structurally less risky than the film he make with and about his wife, 'Schizopolis.' But it is about much the same experience.The risk is only partially in building the character of a hooker around a genuine porn star. It is more in the assumption that close observation of the near-real will snap us into the ultrareal. Who else does this? Who else among successful filmmakers would put themselves on the line like this. Jarman perhaps, if he had been more widely seen.And that is what happens. Because the insights here come not from what is written or what the actors do, but by what we see. The filmmaker is the character that is revealed because we define ourselves by the world we make. And he makes this, by looking for certain things between men and women. The killer risk is that he won't find it, or worse, if he does, he shows us who he really is.The idea is remarkable. The we see through is actually interesting; he makes Sasha an attractive subject and casts his own foibles onto her boyfriend.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

chrisallinson-767-285971 This disappoints hugely and I know why - Soderbergh and his bunch of family-guy buds who wrote/produced this have no concept whatsoever of what the escort-business is about: highly socialized prostitution! They clown around with a way too young and unsophisticated porn star (dress-up doll as a call-girl) like a bunch of puppies. 'Escort' is very sophisticated and serious business and has been covered very well in: 'Half Moon Street' and 'The Man from Elysian Fields'. Soderbergh should stick to the hand-held gritty stuff he does so very well: Sex, Lies and Videotape, Out of Sight, Erin Brokovitch, The Limey, Traffic, et al. He is totally out of his depth here - an embarrassment. Reminded me a bit of his miss with the quasi documentary: Full Frontal. Then it struck me - Soderbergh is attempting to fill the shoes of Robert Altman, whose docu. ensemble pieces were superb: Nashville, The Player, Short Cuts, A Prarie Home Companion - even Mash held the right balance of ensemble v. star power.Steven directs star-power very well: Julia Roberts, George Clooney, JLo, Catherine & Michael, Benicio, Terrence Stamp, etc. There is no one with even a pulse in this sad spectacle.