Girlfriend Experience - Aus dem Leben eines Luxus-Callgirls

I saw this film last night on its UK premiere at the National Film Theatre (although it had previously been given a preview showing to a sell-out audience during the London Film Festival last month). Sasha Grey, the star of the film, appeared in person at the end and participated in one of the longer Q&A sessions in my, admittedly limited, experience of these events in which she batted away questions, mainly about her adult film career, with the same show of glacial insouciance that her character demonstrates in the film.

The film which is a series of episodic vignettes about the encounters, both professional and personal, of a high-priced Manhattan escort girl set in the run-up to last year's US Presidential election is not really about prostitution either as a means of earning money or as a paradigm for the despair of the human soul.

What it is really about is speed-dating, not as an extra-curricular activity but as a well-rewarded existence. The film opens with Ms Grey leaving a hotel and getting into a car and giving a deadpan account of her previous encounter with a client. She prefaces her remarks by listing her complete outfit down to her underwear since this was obviously part of the client "package" which he has purchased, if only for a short time. This sets the tone of the film as being a triumph of, quite literally, style over substance.

This is a very sanitised world with no violence, no drug-taking and even no cooking although enormous importance is attached to meals, mainly taken in commercial premises, where many important conversations take place with Chelsea describing her situation either to clients, an alternately amused and bemused girlfriend (of the platonic variety), and to a journalist. In Chelsea's profession making intelligent, if superficial, conversation is as, if not more, important than her bedroom gymnastic skills.

Whilst Ms Grey's elegant Ice Maiden, a persona she has exploited with astonishing ability in her adult film roles, is eminently watchable the main weaknesses of the film are the character and the plot. Ms Grey and her personal trainer boyfriend are mismatched and seem to have nothing in common except vapid self-regard.

There is not so much a narrative thread as a series of threads that Soderbergh pulls out then almost immediately lets drop again. The scene with the boyfriend where Chelsea tells him she is thinking of going away for the weekend with a client put me briefly in mind of Paul Snider's jealous murderous rage towards Dorothy Stratten (who emerged from the softcore world of Playboy to be on the brink of a carer as a serious actress before her untimely demise) at the end of Bob Fosse's biopic of that tragic figure, "Star 80", but it is never developed and it never becomes clear whether they patched up their differences or parted company.

The most interesting scene and the one where Chelsea almost has a "Goodbar" moment is an encounter with a blog reviewer of erotic "services", the gelatinous self styled "Erotic Connoisseur" . This stands out in sharp contrast to the rest of the film as the dialogue is sharp and pointed and even witty, provoking laughter in the audience, as relief from the surrounding conversational banality. However part way through the scene fades and we do not learn the denouement until later when she describes it in a conversation with a client.

This is one example of how scenes crucial to the action are discussed rather than depicted. This may have some value in a documentary but it weakens a drama which should have both conflict and resolution and this has neither and instead is a few days in the life of a New York escort girl except Ms Grey isn't an escort girl in reality but portraying one in fiction.

Lastly, we come to Ms Grey herself, who I think will be the major selling point of this film particularly for those who have come across at least some of her other 180-odd films she has appeared in since the age of 18 which will never receive a cinema release. Soderbergh himself makes an ironic reference to this in the final scene where a mountainous Jewish jewellry store owner achieves release by merely being embraced by Ms Grey, clad only in bra and pants, just as many others have achieved release by being electronically embraced by Ms Grey through watching her films.

Ms Grey is the most intriguing figure to come out of the adult film industry and attempt a mainstream crossover since Traci Lords in the mid-1980s. Her svelte, dark-haired willowy appearance stands in sharp contrast to the blowsy, blonde, silicon-assisted features of previous adult film stars who have entered the wider public consciousness in more recent times such as Jenna Jameson.

Could Ms Grey achieve what Dorothy Stratten was on the brink of doing before tragedy intervened and become widely accepted as a mainstream actress? On this evidence she has a long way to go yet but this reviewer will continue to follow her career with interest.

A brilliant little film, economic in its resources and smart in its complex editing. However, this is not destined to be a box office hit. It is the kind of film that Soderbergh does once in a while in-between pop flicks to avoid getting bored.

Sasha Grey delivers some good acting as an ambiguously shallow and ambitious prostitute who tries to survive the post-Obama post-Crisis world of depressed clients and worried boyfriend. Her relationship with her costumers and other professionals who are part of the escort world is built little by little in several out-of-order scenes. Most people will find the movie's timeline confusing, but all you have to do is pay attention to her wardrobe and everything will be fine.

I must also note the soundtrack, that makes use of very interesting unknown music. I specially liked the street drummer.

The images are beautiful enough to make one think "well, not bad for a movie shot on digital". Besides the old-school narrative (in the sense that it belongs more to the Bergman era than to the "Wolverine III" era) this movie looks and feels like the new kind of cinema that cheap digital shooting offers. And I like the way it feels.

IN A NUTSHELL: For Sasha Grey and Soderbergh fans and people who actually care about cinema language. If you like Soderbergh because of "Ocean's Eleven", stay away.

OK, somewhere between 1 and 5.. Look, I'm a fairly big Soderbergh fan, Solaris - perfect!, Kafka (where can I buy this now!!), Sex Lies., The Good German and etc.. But what the heck was this movie? I was waiting during the entire movie for the "it's about to get interesting", it has to get interesting because the acting sucks.. right?.. "it's just about to get.. " nope. It never was interesting. And oh I had high hopes for Sasha, not that I know who she is because I had to look her up on Google. But because I love to root for the underdog - thinking just maybe a porn star really could break into mainstream. Oh right, that kinda sorta did happen once from that porn star from the 80's Traci lords.

Despite how 'high brow' Sasha is supposed to be, she was anything but barely interesting during the entire movie. I'm not sure if it was her acting or the script. Hard to tell.

Seriously, this is bad indie at best. It was almost like it was trying to be an indie film, but Sasha Grey didn't have really any interesting lines, she just sat there with uninteresting (understatement) responses. She did cry well, that was about the most challenging part - again the script.

Too bad, I thought this was going to be good by reading those reviews on the box (ah, suckered in by the reviews again!),

I never write reviews about anything. I had to sign up for IMDb just to write this. :) Other than this film, however, Soderbergh rocks, and Sasha Grey probably could act if challenged. She is certainly interesting to look at both in the screen charisma sense and in the other sense.

Well, it was only 5 bucks at BB and 2 hours of my time.

This movie felt like it had potential. It's not often that films try to take a serious look at the world of prostitution. This, however, was a downright mess. It was a terribly contrived attempt at being being hip, indie, and sexy and only managed to land the part that it was independent. The script was AWFUL. The only thing any of these characters ever spent any amount of time discussing with one another was the economic crisis and the presidential elections and that's it, quite literally. If I wanted to listen to more financial rhetoric I would have turned on the news. What about exploring the effects the sex trade has on personal relationships? Or the people involved? Look elsewhere if you're interested in the humanity of these individuals because none is displayed here... And sexy? Please. There is no sensuality to this film and barely even sexuality, which is surprising considering how the entire premise of the film is built around sex. There is no sex and only one or two nude scenes that I can recall, which has become pretty standard for practically any independent film these days.

Sasha Grey is a downright disaster. There's a reason why she does porn - she can't act! This girl maintains the same stone cold, dead-eyed expression and tone throughout the ENTIRE film (save for ONE scene where she laughs with a client). Apparently she only has two expressions, bored and orgasm (referring to her adult films). In this film we only see the first... For that matter, all of the characters are one dimensional, flat, and boring.

I had to quite literally force myself to watch this garbage. Save your time and money and skip over this dud.

This film gets a 5/10 from me because mostly it was in focus and not too hostile to the viewer.

That said, let me start at the end, and say that I was at once relieved that the tedium was over, and annoyed that almost no story had been told, no character really developed. It doesn't even qualify as an abstractly artistic experience.

Soderbergh is by no means my favourite director, but he has been responsible for some at least competent film-making in the past, which is why I went to see this film, in addition to the subject sounding interesting.

But I am just shocked not to be able to find anything good to recommend this film except that it's in focus, and you can identify a main character or two. The sound, cinematography, and editing are otherwise among the worst I've ever experienced. The story just barely exists. In a way, the film is worth seeing just to see how not to make a film.

I could go on about what I wish had been different, but really, what's the point? It's beyond repair.

I will say it's better than Last Days by Gus Van Sant. If you liked that, you'll probably love this.