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Girlfriend Experience, The

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 6 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by:
Brian Koppelman
David Levien
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 22, 2009
DVD: September 29, 2009
Running Time: 78 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for sexual content, nudity and language
Starring Sasha Grey, Chris Santos, Glenn Kenney, and Peter Zizzo
Set in the weeks leading up to the 2008 presidential election, The Girlfriend Experience is five days in the life of Chelsea, an ultra high-end Manhattan call girl who offers more than sex to her clients, but companionship and conversation – “the girlfriend experience.” Chelsea thinks she has her life totally under control—she feels her future is secure because she runs her own business her own way, makes $2000 an hour, and has a devoted boyfriend who accepts her lifestyle. But when you're in the business of meeting people, you never know who you're going to meet. (Magnolia Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Bubble Erin Brockovich Full Frontal Ocean's Eleven Ocean's Twelve Out of Sight sex, lies, and videotape Solaris The Girlfriend Experience The Limey Traffic
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The Girlfriend Experience is one of Steven Soderbergh's bite-size, semi-improvised, shot-on-DV doodles (like Bubble or Full Frontal), and it's the best one he's made.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
This film is true about human nature. It is not universal, but within its particular focus, it is unrelenting.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
The smartest thing director Steven Soderbergh did in the making of The Girlfriend Experience was to cast Sasha Grey.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Fair warning: I had to see The Girlfriend Experience twice before its pieces settled into coherent shape.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
The thinking behind Grey's casting, with its obvious sex-industry connections, lends the film a degree of verisimilitude, but it really pays off in a cameo by film critic Glenn Kenny, who brings a hilariously sleazy theatricality to the role of an "escort critic" who expects graft for his reviews.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Rick Kisonak
Her beauty, independence, and stock portfolio notwithstanding, Chelsea’s tale is a timely, tragic one told with typical Soderbergh finesse, a sly, sleek merger of sex, lies and hi def video.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
This is one of the director's small, experimental, semi-improvised provocations, and if it doesn't push too deep, it's pointed enough to leave a mark.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Soderbergh's experiments are gripping -- the photography, music, wobbly chronology and so on -- but the movie is more of a curiosity than anything else.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Perry Seibert
Stands among the best of Soderbergh's many "little" films, where he recharges his artistic batteries and tries out new techniques before jumping back into the world of big budgets and superstars.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Stylishly shot on the high-def cheap, runs 77 potently sexless minutes. Its subject isn't erotica, it's commodities trading.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Voyeurism is a favorite pursuit of Americans, and The Girlfriend Experience works in large part because it indulges that pastime. The fascination with the film is that it offers an arm's-length opportunity to peer through a peephole into a lifestyle that will be exotic and alluring to most in the audience.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
When the turmoil of the last 12 months has receded and the 10th-anniversary deluxe collectors edition comes around, this strange, numb cinematic experience may seem fresh, shocking and poignant rather than merely and depressingly true.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
A modest success that makes one wish Soderbergh could find some happy middle ground between funky experiments and "Ocean's Eleven."
Read Full Review >Variety Ronnie Scheib
Fascinating study of free enterprise in free fall. While it may disappoint thrill-seekers, "Girlfriend" should still delight Soderbergh fans and niche auds.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
Grey isn't the first porn actress to go straight, but she may be the first to allegorize her own situation--projecting an on-screen self-confidence that’s indistinguishable from pathos.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Jan Stuart
The film manages a career-spanning panache: Soderbergh taps into the nervy impulses of his earliest endeavor, "sex, lies and videotape" as well as "Ocean's Eleven." The Girlfriend Experience has something to elevate and exasperate fans of both.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Moderately compelling and clinical. This isn't "Breakfast at Tiffany's"; this isn't even "Klute."
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
It's hampered by a listless quality and a one-note performance by porn-star-turned-actress Sasha Grey.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The effect is impressionistic and provocative, with the emphasis falling differently on scenes because of our knowledge or lack thereof.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
Though the result is thematically slight, it's structurally sophisticated enough to reward a second viewing (or at least, unlike Grey's previous work, to be watched all the way through).
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Robert Abele
A compelling monotony, but one that's never quite pleasure, never quite pain and, therefore, never quite an experience.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The Girlfriend Experience uses nonprofessional actors, aside from lead Grey, who is the acclaimed star of more than 80 porn films and here debuts in her first "nonadult" role.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
Most of the dialogue is listless, and no matter how much Soderbergh snips and stitches, the movie is a corpse with twitching limbs.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
Nowhere near as kinky or thinky as Soderbergh’s "sex, lies and videotape," Girlfriend pretends it has more on its mind than it really does.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Time for another of Steven Soderbergh's "experimental," i.e., half-assed, films.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.0 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Mike gave it a0:
Yes, we get it the economy is bad, and guess what, So is this movie! I couldn't believe what a bore this was! uninteresting, and the director sucks. Stop pretending to be making "art" being this movie is garbage.
Jay H gave it a5:
What was Steven Soderbergh thinking? This relentlessly bland and unexciting film left me tired and yawning. I admire he has again tried to accomplish something different, and the film does have a certain amount of style, but without an interesting plot, who cares? One of his biggest strengths is characters with definition and depth. Not in this film.
Alan Z gave it a2:
Don't be fooled (or is it seduced) by the salacious title or overt sensual appeal of Sasha Grey (if that's what you're after there are far better places to see her on display). The film is disjointed, distant, and vacant of any character development or depth. It's more about human bankruptcy than it is about any economic one. Perhaps it's only really meaningful comment is the films narrow indictment of the current Jewish world view in contemporary America. I know that's a stretch but after you've spent 80 minutes in a duldrum you might want to reach for anything. Soderbergh is far too talented for this phone-in of a film. He knows this terrain well. Revisit 'sex, lies and videotapes' for a mirrowed style but a film of importance and substance.
Nana K. gave it a7:
Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) nailed the allegory. I liked it more than Full Frontal, but not as much as Bubble.
