The Girlfriend Experience | |
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Directed by | Steven Soderbergh |
Written by | |
Produced by | |
Starring |
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Cinematography | Peter Andrews |
Edited by | Mary Ann Bernard |
Music by | Ross Godfrey |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Magnolia Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 77 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.7 million |
Box office | $1 million [1] |
The Girlfriend Experience is a 2009 American slice-of-life drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh, written by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, and starring then-pornographic actress Sasha Grey. [2] [3] It was shot in New York City, and a rough cut was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009. [4] The film was also made available on Amazon Video on Demand as a pre-theatrical rental. [5]
Soderbergh mentioned Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert and Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers as influences. The film was produced for $1.3 million and was shot with a relatively inexpensive Red One camera. [6]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2013) |
In the days leading up to the 2008 presidential election, a high-end Manhattan escort meets the challenges of her boyfriend, her clients, and her work. Chelsea (real name Christine) specializes in offering girlfriend experiences. She finds that lately her clients are spending less and less on her services, and are troubled by the Great Recession, a topic they raise frequently in her company. She is also interviewed by a journalist, who quizzes her about her work and personal life. She goes from client to client performing her services.
As of June 2020 [update] , the film has a 67% approval rating on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes based on 139 reviews with an average rating of 6.39/10. The website's critics consensus states: "Steven Soderbergh's latest lo-fi production is strikingly crafted but emotionally vague". [7] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [8]
Roger Ebert rated the film four out of four stars, saying "This film is true about human nature. It clearly sees needs and desires. It is not universal, but within its particular focus, it is unrelenting." [9]
On the opposite end of the spectrum, David Edelstein of New York Magazine complained that, "Most of the dialogue is listless, and no matter how much Soderbergh snips and stitches, the movie is a corpse with twitching limbs." [10] Luke Davies, critic for The Monthly , wrote that the film is "disposable and pretentious" and "is shot sombrely and austerely, in a style that might be described as 'vacuous chic'" and concluded that "as a film in which a porn star's presence is a fundamental marketing hook, it is masturbation." [11]
In June 2014, Starz committed to a 13-episode order for a new television series, based on the film, with Soderbergh and Philip Fleishman as executive producers. Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz co-wrote and directed all 13 episodes. Though the main character uses the same name as Sasha Grey’s character in the film, Grey does not appear in the series. [12] Riley Keough starred as the new lead, described by Soderbergh as "a new character on a new trajectory". [13] Season 2 featured new stories focusing on two different sets of characters. [14] Season 3 was announced in July by Starz. [15] The third season, featuring Julia Goldani Telles in the lead, premiered on May 2, 2021. [16]
Steven Andrew Soderbergh is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor. A pioneer of modern independent cinema, Soderbergh later drew acclaim for formally inventive films made within the studio system.
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Marina Ann Hantzis, known professionally as Sasha Grey, is an American actress, model, writer, musician, and former pornographic film actress. She began her acting career in the pornographic film industry, winning 15 awards for her work between 2007 and 2010, including the AVN Award for Female Performer of the Year in 2008. In 2023, she was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame and the XRCO Hall of Fame.
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Moneyball is a 2011 American biographical sports drama film that was directed by Bennett Miller with a script by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin from a story by Stan Chervin. The film is based on the 2003 nonfiction book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis. The book is an account of the Oakland Athletics baseball team's 2002 season and their general manager Billy Beane's attempts to assemble a competitive team with half as much money as his rivals. In the film, Beane and his deputy Peter Brand scour the major leagues for undervalued talent by taking a sophisticated sabermetric approach to scouting and analyzing players, triggering skepticism and resentment within the baseball community.
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The Girlfriend Experience is an American anthology drama television series created, written, and directed by Lodge Kerrigan and Amy Seimetz shown on the premium cable network Starz. The first season stars Riley Keough as Christine Reade, a law student intern who also works as a high-end escort. Executive produced by Steven Soderbergh, it is based on the 2009 film of the same name. A 13-episode first season premiered on April 10, 2016, and all episodes were made available on Starz On Demand.
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