sasha grey Tagged Articles at Cinematical
The Porn Star Who Loved Art Flicks
Filed under: Fandom », Newsstand », Movie Marketing », Trailers and Clips »
I catch The Rotten Tomatoes Show pretty much every week, especially now that co-host Ellen Fox and I are officially engaged (but don't tell her; it's a surprise), and I'm always on the lookout for the best clips to share with you guys. Recently The RT Show had actress / cyber-smut starlet / attractive female Sasha Grey pop up to share her top five films, what with her 'legit' debut just hitting the scene recently. (It's Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience, and I'm still looking forward to checking it out.)So I'm guessing the producers of The RT Show were expecting a fairly standard list of favorite flicks from Ms. Grey. Maybe something like Pretty Woman or The Sixth Sense or (aha) Boogie Nights ... but Sasha is clearly a very discerning gal, and it sure seems like her tastes run towards the indie, the foreign, and the artsy. I won't ruin the surprises, but embedded below is a porn star who not only adores Cassavetes, Breillat, and Herzog, but she speaks about them well enough to prove she's not faking it! (I hate porn stars who fake it.) And then, just to add a little tweak to the list, her #1 pick is so cool, it made me want to ... give Sasha Grey a nice big kiss. On the cheek. Her face's cheek. Honest.
Review: The Girlfriend Experience
Filed under: Drama », Theatrical Reviews »

By James Rocchi (original publication date -- 1/21/09 -- Sundance Film Festival
The beige square on the Sundance schedule for today -- "Sneak Preview," 6:15 at the Eccles -- was, over the past few days, filled in with a thousand brushstrokes of rumor and intimation and heard-it-from-a-friend-who-heard-it-from-a-friend whisperings. The first murmuring I heard to make that "Sneak Preview" a must-see was that the presentation was going to be an evening with Steven Soderbergh, a night of clips and conversation -- until that proposition, exciting as it was, was supplanted by another rumor: That the Eccles Sneak was going to be Soderbergh showing The Girlfriend Experience, his new run-and-gun, shot-with-the-4K-Red-digital-camera, adult-actress-in-the-lead-role, largely-improvised drama about the life of a New York escort. The rumors, for once, were true.
Soderbergh introduced the film with, as he put it, "a few caveats" as a "work in progress" projecting a 1080p reduction of the 4K file. In 1989, Soderbergh gave Sundance, and then us, sex, lies and videotape; in 2009, he offers sex, truth, and digital video. Much fuss was made when Soderbergh announced this film, and even more was made when he cast adult actress (the polite euphemism for 'porn star,' and that itself a polite euphemism for 'someone who has sex on-camera for money') Sasha Grey in the lead role as a Manhattan call girl who offers not just rushed release but the more refined "girlfriend experience" -- a suite of services including, as we see in the opener, fine red wine and Marc Jacobs black dresses, soft kisses and small talk, and many more things, an experience that goes far beyond sex. And yet still includes it.
Would You Pay for This 'Girlfriend' Early?
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Magnolia », Distribution », Home Entertainment », Movie Marketing », Images », Cinematical Indie », Posters »
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Have you been secretly sneak previewing films before they open in theaters? I'm not talking about illegally downloading a big Hollywood flick like X-Men Origins: Wolverine or buying cheap pirate DVDs on the street. Indie distributors IFC Films and Magnolia Pictures have been pioneers in making their releases available via video on demand (VOD) systems, as reported by Anne Thompson at Variety last summer. IFC releases some titles direct to VOD, bypassing theaters entirely, while others are released to theaters and VOD at the same time.
Magnolia first experimented with the so-called "day-and-date" model in 2005, with Steven Soderbergh's Bubble, and has since made a few titles available several weeks in advance of a theatrical release as "sneak previews." (That's how I was able to see James Gray's Two Lovers two weeks before it opened locally.) Soderbergh's latest film, The Girlfriend Experience, will be available via VOD on April 30 before hitting theaters in New York and Los Angeles on May 22. James Rocchi caught the "work in progress" secret screening at Sundance and described it as "an intimate and yet honest movie about honesty and intimacy." Set in the days leading up to the 2008 Presidential election, porn star Sasha Grey plays a high-end Manhattan call girl meeting the challenges of her boyfriend (Chris Santos), her clients, and her work. You can check out the fabulous, alluring poster in the gallery below.
Gallery: The Girlfriend Experience
Have you sneak previewed films via VOD? Is it worth the expense so you can see a film in advance of its theatrical release? Or is it just more convenient? Would you consider doing so on a title-by-title basis? Would you pay to see this Girlfriend early?
Sundance Review: The Girlfriend Experience
Filed under: Drama », Independent », Sundance », Theatrical Reviews », Festival Reports », Celebrities and Controversy », Cinematical Indie », Sundance Reviews 2009 »

The beige square on the Sundance schedule for today -- "Sneak Preview," 6:15 at the Eccles -- was, over the past few days, filled in with a thousand brushstrokes of rumor and intimation and heard-it-from-a-friend-who-heard-it-from-a-friend whisperings. The first murmuring I heard to make that "Sneak Preview" a must-see was that the presentation was going to be an evening with Steven Soderbergh, a night of clips and conversation -- until that proposition, exciting as it was, was supplanted by another rumor: That the Eccles Sneak was going to be Soderbergh showing The Girlfriend Experience, his new run-and-gun, shot-with-the-4K-Red-digital-camera, adult-actress-in-the-lead-role, largely-improvised drama about the life of a New York escort. The rumors, for once, were true.
Soderbergh introduced the film with, as he put it, "a few caveats" as a "work in progress" projecting a 1080p reduction of the 4K file. In 1989, Soderbergh gave Sundance, and then us, sex, lies and videotape; in 2009, he offers sex, truth, and digital video. Much fuss was made when Soderbergh announced this film, and even more was made when he cast adult actress (the polite euphemism for 'porn star,' and that itself a polite euphemism for 'someone who has sex on-camera for money') Sasha Grey in the lead role as a Manhattan call girl who offers not just rushed release but the more refined "girlfriend experience" -- a suite of services including, as we see in the opener, fine red wine and Marc Jacobs black dresses, soft kisses and small talk, and many more things, an experience that goes far beyond sex. And yet still includes it.
Steven Soderbergh is 'Making Jack Falcone'
Filed under: Drama », Thrillers », Deals », Paramount », Scripts »
You know, if I didn't know any better, I would say that Steven Soderbergh was having a bit of a 'creative crisis' lately (talk about a guy who is all over the map). But, it hasn't stopped him from taking on more 'traditional projects' like a good old-fashioned mob film. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Soderbergh is teaming with Paramount to produce an adaptation of Joaquin "Jack" Garcia's true-life mob story, Making Jack Falcone. According to THR, Soderbergh will not direct, but will be "on board to read drafts of the script and offer other guidance on the project."Che collaborator Peter Buchman has already signed to adapt the story of an FBI agent sent to take down the infamous Gambino crime family. The book is based on Garcia's (also known as Jack Falcone) life undercover, and how he managed to climb through the ranks of the FBI to end up as one of one of the few undercover agents in history to almost become a 'made man'. Garcia's life is ready-made for big screen treatment; between his numerous aliases and the lure of a good underworld story, there is plenty to recommend this role to any Oscar-hungry actor.
It's a bit of a disappointment that Soderbergh will only be producing this time around, but when you take a look at the guy's schedule for the coming year, its not like you can blame him. No sooner had he finished his earnest political drama, Che, before he was off to work on the whistle-blowing thriller The Informant with Matt Damon. But, as if that wasn't enough for him, there is still the small matter of a 3D rock musical about Cleopatra, a Liberace biopic starring Michael Douglas and The Girlfriend Experience with porn star Sasha Grey. Like I said, the man likes to mix it up.
Who do you think should take over where Soderbergh is going to leave off? Sound off below...









