Girlfriend Experience

Ultimately this is a depressing and boring movie about a sex addicts delusional self destruction. It's shot in a documentary style with several fake "re-enactment" scenes. If you enjoy watch people on a boring course of self-destruction you'll have fun. If you're sane you'll skip this car crash and not waste your time on this well crafted disaster of a movie. I suppose somebody needs to tackle this issues of this movie but the people who did this movie clearly did it for their own glory without any concerns about how they are torturing the audience that the are boring with their "art". This movie typifies what is WRONG with the "Indie" scene in that it's more of an ego fest of production talents rather than containing ANY entertainment value. You should skip it!

Keywords on Ileana Pietrobruno's Girlfriend Experience: brilliant, assured, original; non-judgmental and daring. The subject of prostitutes and "johns" has never been approached like this, and the Vancouver locations create a great shadowy world.

Haven't seen the Soderbergh film of the same (similar?) title, but he would be hard pressed to top this Canadian wow-er. It's obvious that the filmmaker comes from the edit room (she edits documentaries and features) because the story and coverage are so perfect. Clearly a child of 20th century rep cinema, this is one of the best narrative works to borrow from -- and then explode -- documentary and reality conventions. Check it out.

It's a faux documentary following Daniel as he roams the night looking for prostitutes. He's looking for GFE (GirlFriend Experience). There are "re-enactments" with the prostitutes. The women are mostly nameless. There are testimony from other nameless men. It's a high-concept Canadian indie film. It's intriguing at first but it quickly gets tiresome. This guy is hopeless and infuriating. The tone is a drag. There is no drama, no tension, no nothing. Nobody should care about this guy. It's an empty movie just like him.

Note that it is NOT the Steven Soderbergh film of the same name. If only my local video store had been so helpful as to point this out. Anyway, since the rental was already paid, I watched it. It is done as a pseudo-documentary, with a camera crew following around a downward spiralling, sex-addicted landscaping contractor (no, really) who lives in a motel room thanks to being kicked out by his girlfriend and who is going broke paying for sex with a teenage prostitute he is obsessing over. The hooker won't appear on camera, and so her scenes and speeches are re-created by an actress on a rather cheap looking soundstage, standing in for the motel room. The constant shifting back and forth between 'reality' and re-creation makes for a somewhat disorienting experience in which it is difficult for the audience to settle voyeuristically into the usual Cops-style reality TV experience, and this is obviously the point. The audience does not get voyeuristic titillation, it gets an education in male attitudes about sex, women and women who sell sex. The viewpoint is clearly feminist, with the men emerging as users and losers, not to mention the financial victims of their own needs, while the women come off as more stable and sensible. The documentary style is a good filming choice, as it hides the low budget while maintaining the illusion of reality and immediacy. That said, there are better ways to spend 90 minutes.

I think this is an excellent film. It's real, compelling, and intelligent. The editing pushes you along through the story with such smoothness; very well done. I actually laughed a couple times at how well some parts of the movie were cut together, you just don't see that sort of effort put in everyday. The viewer is vaulted from one scene to the next in such a seamless, but poignant way, it almost catches you off guard, while leaving you thinking it was just the way it should be. The acting is great, and it's such a unique perspective. David Lewis slaughters it. Stellar. He makes it come to life. Can't really fault the film in any way worth talking about. go see it.