Disassociation in our shallow, superficial culture

The Girlfriend Experience (15) Director Steven Soderbergh Starring Sasha Grey, Chris Santos, Mark Jacobson, Glenn Kenny, David Levien 77 mins Two star rating It s a boring film but that s OK – mundanity is the message. Following a high class escort gir

The Girlfriend

Experience (15)

Director Steven Soderbergh Starring Sasha Grey, Chris Santos, Mark Jacobson, Glenn Kenny, David Levien 77 mins

Two star rating

It's a boring film but that's OK - mundanity is the message. Following a high class escort girl Chelsea (Grey), in the weeks prior to Obama's election, it's a random assemblage of scenes in which we see her dealing with various wealthy clients who all talk tediously about how tough the financial situation is.

This is Capitalism: the Sex Transaction, an expression of disassociation in our shallow, superficial culture, in the style of Soderbergh's favourites Godard or Richard Lester. Soderbergh is a strange director with about three different careers going on. There are the glossy commercial films (usually starring George Clooney), the glossy personal projects and every so often he'll throw in a glossy bit of experimenta.

But all these strands are beginning to overlap. When Chelsea obsessively lists her designer label clothes she sounds like a cross between Patrick Bateman in American Psycho and Bridget Jones. Or indeed Matt Damon's character in Soderbergh's The Informant!

The look of the film is standard Soderbergh: handheld camera, cold yet tingly surfaces, faces covered in shadows. It's like he's taken one of his best scenes - the Don't Look Now inspired Clooney/ Jennifer Lopez seduction scene from Out of Sight and made a whole film of it, but without the fun or sexual charge.