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Reviews
Westminster Wife Show (2009)
Very funny!
The wife and I watched this movie this past weekend when it popped up on movies-on-demand. The preview looked funny and the movie didn't disappoint! The movie has been described as "Best in Show" meets Porky's and that's pretty accurate. It's a "mockumentary" with a surprising amount of nudity.
The supposed documentary is about a "wife show" similar to the Westminster dog show. The wives go through various domestic challenges like holding a tray of beers while managing an obstacle course. But the bulk of movie is about the various contestants, ranging from the upscale third-generation competitor to likable trailer trash, while they train for the competition. It also spends a lot of time on the sleazy promoter and his inexplicably devoted assistant with their travails trying to "update" the competition from a family values-style show to something decidedly more raunchy.
One of my favorite parts was when the trailer trash wife was "training" by walking on the treadmill while doing her phone sex job.
All the mostly unknown actors do a very nice job. Standouts were Damon Guerrasio as the sleazy jerk promoter, and Ed Jiovanni as the hilariously foul-mouthed husband of the trailer park contestant.
The Girlfriend Experience (2009)
Well, that was interesting
Hmm, can we still call an all-digital movie a "film"?
The term "girlfriend experience" comes from escort advertisements, where they offer not just "companionship" (ie, sex) but also things a girlfriend would do -- hugs, kisses, conversation, dinner, etc. In other words, they pretend they're not just there for the money.
Porn star Sasha Grey plays the part of a high-dollar escort named Chelsea. High-dollar as in $2000 an hour. The movie follows her over the span of a few days as she is chauffeured from "clients" to designer clothes stores to upscale restaurants to her spacious downtown apartment she shares with her personal trainer boyfriend (and yes, he knows what she does). They both hustle up business in their own ways -- she tries to figure out how to get increased traffic to her web site; he tries hawking his own line of workout clothes.
What little drama there is comes when Chelsea sees one of her regular clients with a "new girl" named Tara who everyone is talking about. While normally very self confident, that moment of insecurity leads her to make a few questionable decisions, including seeing a sleazy escort review website operator (played by movie critic Glenn Kenny). The disastrous review is read in a hilarious voice-over by Kenny, sounding like the pompous comic shop owner from The Simpsons.
If you've seen a lot of Soderbergh's movies, especially his smaller projects, you have a good idea what to expect going into it. It's a "slice of life" style movie, with just the barest outlines of a plot; even much of the dialog is probably improvised. The scenes are presented out of order (much like The Limey), but it's not too confusing if you don't obsess about it. It seems like nearly every shot is made with a telephoto lens; you feel very distant from the events, both physically and emotionally. But the cinematography is quite beautiful. I've read that only a few scenes used additional lighting, everything else was done with available light. Thank you digital!
Grey is actually quite good in the movie. While mostly acting very reserved and in control (as you would probably expect of a woman in her line of work), she can turn on the charm when she needs to, showing a crooked, sly smile. To me, the most interesting part of the film was her lunch with a journalist (played by real life prostitution expose writer Marc Jacobson) who keeps chipping away at her emotional armor. She opens the door to him just a little, then shuts it closed when the questions become too personal.
This is a quiet film, yet I found it compelling. While there is little in the way of plot, you do keep wondering what's going to happen next.