The Girlfriend Experience

The Girlfriend Experience stars adult film actress Sasha Grey as Chelsea, a high price escort who offers her wealthy client the eponymous service. In other words, on their long, often overnight "dates," she assumes the role of a temporary romantic partner, attending and discussing highbrow cultural ...more

The Girlfriend Experience is a study of dualities and boundaries blurred. Commodified sex and emotions dangerously commingle in the world inhabited by high-end call girl Chelsea (played by porn star-turned-thespian Sasha Grey), and the flirtation is volatile, to say the least. Director Steven Soderbergh trades guerrilla warfare fatigues for La Perla lingerie in this, his career follow-up to 2008’s plodding Communist biopic Che. The film plays like a slick, high-definition video diary from ...more

Steven Soderbergh is a cerebral filmmaker. He's not unemotional, it's just that the first question he asks himself about every directorial choice seems to be "how does this work" as opposed to "how does this feel?" And his main characters often start out with their emotions compartmentalized because his interest in them depends on finding the breaking point where they can no longer ignore their feelings. Chelsea, the protagonist of The Girlfriend Experience, fits this description perfectly. ...more