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The Girlfriend Experience

Play trailer Poster for The Girlfriend Experience R Released May 22, 2009 1h 17m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
67% Tomatometer 139 Reviews 35% Popcornmeter 25,000+ Ratings
Chelsea (Sasha Grey) is an in-demand call girl whose $2,000 an hour price tag allows her to live in New York's lap of luxury. Besides her beauty and sexual skill, Chelsea offers her clients companionship and conversation, or, as she dubs it, "the girlfriend experience." With her successful business and a devoted, live-in boyfriend, Chelsea thinks she has it made... until a new client rocks her world.
The Girlfriend Experience

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Steven Soderbergh's latest lo-fi production is strikingly crafted but emotionally vague.

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Critics Reviews

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Melissa Anderson Film Comment Magazine Documenting the way we speak now, however, doesn't compensate for the film's own hollow rhetoric; TGE's tricked-out, fractured narrative merely distracts from its dead-end cynicism. Mar 28, 2018 Full Review Christy Lemire Associated Press We also find ourselves wondering about the real Chelsea, but Grey plays her as such a chic, chameleonlike enigma, she remains beyond our grasp. It's all part of the game: enticing but frustrating, the ultimate tease. Oct 1, 2014 Full Review Mark Jenkins NPR The Girlfriend Experience proves that a visually striking film can be made on the fly. But grab-and-run is a more fruitful strategy for images than scripts. Oct 1, 2014 Full Review Jas Keimig The Stranger (Seattle, WA) In her first mainstream picture, adult film star Sasha Grey is appropriately enigmatic and alluring, if not a little stiff. Dec 8, 2021 Full Review David Walsh World Socialist Web Site Bringing bits and pieces of this unpleasant, narcissistic universe to life in The Girlfriend Experience, for example, is not a satisfying substitute for explaining why such a social existence came into being and why it fell apart. Feb 13, 2021 Full Review Mattie Lucas From the Front Row An intriguing if strangely empty glimpse inside a seemingly glamorous world, Rated: 2.5/4 Aug 5, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Mike K Extreme soft porn with a story or two hung on it. Could do way better with your laptop. Men are stupid pigs and troubled children, women are smart... but really they are all c#*%s. Go figure. Another scene into the depravity and greed in the neurotic, sociopathic society we are ruled by. Huzza!! Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 04/10/25 Full Review John A Fairly well-acted (including Sasha Grey). This film feels more like a slightly experimental project testing the capabilities of early RED cameras instead of a driven flourish of Soderbergh's. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/03/25 Full Review david f It tries a little too hard to have a message but it is of-the-moment, contemporary, thoughtful and experimental. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Slow, boring, uninteresting. Should be called a day in the life. Who cares Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review waleed a completely pointless and useless. garbo-trash. horrendous. why wouldn't they use an actress???? why was the acting in this movie less than straight-to-dvd level quality. worse than network drama acting. why did you need a porn star? especially since most actresses would have done everything required for this role, while also bringing talent. it was a little nudity. i don't think there was even a sex scene. so why in the hell would they not cast the hundreds of actresses that would have loved to start in a soderbergh movie. my theory is soderbergh was obsessed with sasha grey and wanted to do her. and her boyfriend was horrendous. even when he wasn't saying anything he was bad. also, critics are worst (1 viewing) Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member This lacks the depth and substance of the TV show of the same name (aired 2016) produced by Soderbergh. I suppose one could say this is a good start, but it's too vaguely built and the film reads more like a jumbled essay with no thesis or plot development. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Girlfriend Experience

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Cast & Crew

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Steven Soderbergh

Director

Sasha Grey

Chelsea

Chris Santos

Chris

Mark Jacobson

Interviewer

Glenn Kenny

Erotic Connoisseur

Philip Eytan

Philip

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Movie Info

Synopsis Chelsea (Sasha Grey) is an in-demand call girl whose $2,000 an hour price tag allows her to live in New York's lap of luxury. Besides her beauty and sexual skill, Chelsea offers her clients companionship and conversation, or, as she dubs it, "the girlfriend experience." With her successful business and a devoted, live-in boyfriend, Chelsea thinks she has it made... until a new client rocks her world.
Director
Steven Soderbergh
Producer
Gregory Jacobs
Screenwriter
David Levien, Brian Koppelman
Distributor
Magnolia Pictures
Production Co
Extension 765, 2929 Entertainment
Rating
R (Nudity|Language|Sexual Content)
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
May 22, 2009, Limited
Release Date (DVD)
Jun 16, 2009
Box Office (Gross USA)
$695.4K
Runtime
1h 17m