as i go through the films of steven soderbergh and it comes to the films i have never seen before i have been constantly surprised and only once was i disappointed, that film being full frontal. every other time i was surprised at how much i enjoyed his films and at the audacity in his filmmaking in which i mean how he is always trying new a different things. the girlfriend experience was one of the unseen films i was looking most forward to. why? well i guess because it was about sex (an escort) which i am a sucker for and it starred sasha grey who i think is great in her 'less mainstream' work, wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more say no more. so at a brisk 77 minutes it was actually very entertaining for what it was, which was not much. it was about an escort and her boyfriend and her clients. that's really it. it never really dragged, it always entertained and it had a little bit of a story. plus you get nudity (a soderbergh first); very brief nudity but nudity none the less. what didn't work for me was the boyfriend storyline. why follow him around and what was the purpose? why follow him on an airplane and why shoot it so over saturated? i suppose some of the boyfriend stuff gives context and fleshes out the film but it was still pointless. and pointless is kind of the name of the game when it comes to this film. it's about an escort and her daily life. that's it, there is no character development really; things happen and then life goes on. i thought, and the film makes you think that there will be a point but there never ends up being one. so entertaining, short enough, slick enough, sasha grey, sasha grey naked all make this a worthwhile show. it's pointlessness and added scenes detract from it as this probably would of been a very strong if not excellent 55 minute short film. i understand the pointlessness as not every film needs to have a point or a message and real life sometimes is a just a series of events that don't necessarily go anywhere so yeah it doesn't need to have a point but still the added scenes stretch the pointlessness. so that's my review of this film. a very well made 77 minutes that entertain but nothing more. instead of leaving you thinking it will just end and you will say okay, that was that then. what it did do to me was make me want to see more (of) sasha grey. i think i'll go look her up... production design: 8 out of 10 cinematography: 7 out of 10 re-playability: 5 out of 10 originality: 7 out of 10 costumes: 7 out of 10 directing: 7 out of 10 editing: 8 out of 10 acting: 8 out of 10 music: 7 out of 10 script: 7 out of 10 71/100