In Theaters: The Girlfriend Experience
"When you commit yourself to a character," Sasha Grey recently told Movieline, "you really don't know what's going to happen until that exact moment or that exact scene." Maybe so, but in the adult-film actress's mainstream debut The Girlfriend Experience -- directed with cool, affectless precision by Steven Soderbergh -- your educated guesses probably wouldn't be that far off.
Grey stars as Christine, who in turn appears as Chelsea, a high-priced escort experiencing a bit of a professional lag. Her customers bring increasing amounts of recession-era angst to their sessions; her four-figure hourly fee has provided well for her, but she uneasily strives from a plateau where she watches the competition swirl around her. Her boyfriend Chris (Chris Santos) isn't faring much better at the gym where he works (for now) as a personal trainer. Their respective hustles -- Christine flirts with the ubiquity of the Web, Chris enacts power grabs with clients and employers alike -- bleed into their own relationship, which is psychosexually fraught enough in the first place.
None of the above happens in any particular order, or with any particular emphasis by Soderbergh himself; despite his nonlinear plot (if you can even call it that), his 77-minute minifeature has the texture and dimension of a windowpane. And one definitely feels like he/she is watching the principals, whether through glass, across a dining room, or invited as a third party to witness what unfold as a series increasingly bleak, stony negotiations. Even the most optimistic among them -- between Christine and the only man in the film who makes her laugh -- deteriorates into futility. And for once, she breaks.
But while Christine's emotional breaches are rare, her vulnerability is not. She's not so unlike the older factory worker in Bubble -- Soderbergh's previous experimentally tinged HD effort -- whose disadvantage in a love triangle drives her to distraction (and worse). Christine seems perpetually on the defensive, even when on the offensive. Grey occupies that schism with a discipline matching her director's, and it's true, she doesn't necessarily look like she's doing anything in particular. But Soderbergh sprinkles in context clues directly playing off her range (the last scene is especially revelatory), and while her performance never achieves anything like the spontaneity alluded to at the top of this review, she's no sphinx.
Gimmick-hunters will be disappointed to find no sex or even any real sexiness in Girlfriend Experience. In fact, as the emotional economy follows the fiscal variety into the crapper, the overriding feeling is actually one of pronounced unsexiness. It's a testament to Soderbergh's imagination that Sasha Grey can emerge, even for 77 minutes, as the smoky-eyed face of American existential crisis. All Grey has to do now is make it to the next scene. Here's hoping. RATING (out of 10): 7
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Comments
It is so nice to see a mainstream director justifying the belief held by many desperate woman that a career in porn can lead to a career in legitimate film. I can only hope his own daughter makes the decision to enter porn as payback for all the woman who will now enter porn thanks to this film. If porn should ever stop being misogynistic, violent, and sometimes [most times] down right disturbing then and only then will it be acceptable to reward people in that industry.
And, continuing that logic, the American voting public justified that a career in legitimate film can lead to a career in politics.
And I, for one, think we have more than enough cocksuckers in elected office.
"I can only hope his own daughter makes the decision to enter porn as payback for all the woman who will now enter porn thanks to this film."
Um, the hell?
Do you really think a limited release Soderbergh experiment is going to drive the ladies to the Porns? That's an awful big leap to make.
Also, I realize this is the Interwebz, but actively hoping the dude's daughter goes into porn is kind of ass, even if you are the "evil" PH.
Isn't American Idol a hit because the audience believes to win is a reward based on Talent and (at least public) integrity? Being an a struggling actor in Hollywood the shadow of the porn industry is always looming over your head, especially when times are tough. Look up Sasha Grey (NSFW) and tell me she was the best actress for a non-sexual role; if she deserved to be "rewarded". I know this isn't 1985 and that fame holds very little reward, but if the line between porn and the mainstream (formally) starts to blur-- Celebrity will lose all meaning! [maybe it already has] Plus, Why would Soderbergh have an issue with his daughter doing porn if he is willing to cast a porn actress as a lead in his film? Your belief I was insulting him by suggesting as much about his daughter proves my point.
Oh, dear. Are we not passed the point where we are demonizing the porns? If Mr Soderbergh treats his daughter with love and respect (and if we all do the same, if we find ourselves with daughters) then it's pretty unlikely they'll be 'eating jizz' for a living.
Have we evolved as a race to the point of celebrating an industry which dehumanizes using sexual violence? I am all for the visualization of sex but we know that is not what most porn is about. And isn't referring to it as "eating jizz" a derogatory term? If someone wants to present a counter argument it might be helpful if they didn't "demonize" porn in the same sentence. This casting upsets me because I think of the legitimate actresses who auditioned for the role and are now somewhere in Los Feliz wondering how to pay the rent and wondering if maybe they should have taken that slimeball producer's offer to gangbang a room full of strangers.
"Plus, Why would Soderbergh have an issue with his daughter doing porn if he is willing to cast a porn actress as a lead in his film? Your belief I was insulting him by suggesting as much about his daughter proves my point."
A) I don't disagree with your perception of the industry in general, and didn't in my post, either.
B) I believe you're a callous human being for actively hoping his daughter succumbs to the "misogynistic, violent, and sometimes [most times] down right disturbing" industry you're railing against.
C) So it's OK for Sasha Grey to continually have to earn a paycheck by filming Cleveland Steamer Boat Willie but somehow other actresses that haven't had to do porn yet are more deserving because of... er... why, again?
D) Maybe Grey was the actress Soderbergh chose precisely because of her past career and thought that some of that experience would add an extra layer to the performance of the character. Your refusal to look at the casting as anything other than "rewarding the porns" is narrow minded and a tad ridiculous.
The 140 character limit should be universal.
Then we could all express ourselves as tween girls!>>> How FAB wud dat B!!!!
"B) I believe you're a callous human being for actively hoping his daughter succumbs to the "misogynistic, violent, and sometimes [most times] down right disturbing" industry you're railing against."
Then my work is done here.
Guys, guys, GUYS! We can solve this whole issue of poor young women thinking porn is a cool job for women, and yet still continue to make well-directed soft-core art films, in two words: Gay Escorts.
Someone round up Ryan Carnes, Jesse Metcalfe, Justin Hartley, Johnny Hazzard, François Sagat, and Emile Hirsch, STAT. Directed by Bryan Singer.
Ugh. I miss the days when girl rage could just be redirected to Jezebel.
Ha! If you only knew what you just said! BTW, this is the second time you have knocked me Desk_Hack>>> What did I ever do to you??
Having once spent a strange few months working at an adult video store I cannot deny that there is a great deal of pornography that is, "misogynistic, violent, and sometimes...down right disturbing," but that it is a mistake made out of either ignorance or personal dogma to think that this accurately describes the industry as a whole (if only because in order to argue that it does means that you believe that there is something inherently evil in filming one of the most common and universal acts to be found in the natural world). But even if this wasn't true, I still find your criticism disturbing insofar as it advocates the position that people should not be allowed to transcend or be forgiven the decisions they made during what is almost universally the most confusing and difficult part of their lives.
I realize that your position is most likely a popular one, given the merciless bitterness that seems to currently dominate the culture (evidenced by the ubiquitous subtext of "I loathe these people because I am not one of them" found in so many anonymous online comments), but I personally would be happier to live in a world where a choice made by a confused 18 year-old does not irrevocably brand them with a scarlet letter for the rest of their life, the possession of which is then used to forever deny them opportunities worthy of their talents.
Clearly you do not believe that someone such as Ms. Grey deserves the chance of redemption, which suggests either that you yourself have lived a life devoid of regret or--more likely--you tried to get into porn but failed due to your being so terribly fat and ugly.
Snap.
Stalecake wins!
There is no redemption here! GREY IS STILL IN PORN!
I never said filming sex was wrong. That is my issue with porn>> It turns something sexy into something degrading. (Much like your remark about "you tried to get into porn but failed due to your being so terribly fat and ugly")
DOUBLE SNAP ON YOU WOMAN HATERS!
(You are so falling into my web, suckers!!!)