Who's In It: Sasha Grey, Chris Santos
The Basics: A free-agent prostitute has her mind on the money and the money on her mind as she navigates the business side of her career with the help of her personal trainer boyfriend and money-based discussions with friends, art dealers and clients. And that's kind of it. You keep waiting for Suze Orman to pop up and take her aside and give her a talking to about Roth IRAs, but nothing even that flashy ever goes down. Oh, and if you're looking for NC-17 sex then you've come to the wrong handheld digital camera-shot, 77-minute indie film.
What's The Deal: Steven Soderbergh made this. It's another trip down the zero-budget, non-professional actors road he traveled with Bubble and seems to be a nice outlet for his non-commercial side in between working with Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt and George Clooney. As for this movie, it's a quiet little character study of a person who's totally closed off even while she gives the most intimate kind of service to guys who not only need sex but also a woman to listen to them. And it's one that plays out with a mixed-up timetable, so it's possible to read as either ultimately humiliating or simply mundane, depending on which scene you believe to be the last frame of the narrative.
Instant Media Hook: Sasha Grey, who plays the Girlfriend, is a real porn star with a LOT of credits to her name. You may know her best from I Wanna Bang Your Sister or Evil Sluts 3 or Sasha Grey's Anatomy or... well, actually those are the only ones I'm allowed to say here. She has an IMDb page, though, if you're that curious. Anyway, the point is that if her flat, emotionless performance is intentional--and you sort of trust Soderbergh to know why he chooses an actor--then she was apparently cast for her ability to disassociate from human emotion and she's perfect for the role.
Possible Alternate Title: The Happy Hooker Who's Also a Licensed Professional Counselor and Possibly a Little Bit Lonely Because Her Own Boyfriend Isn't Always Supportive of Her Career Choice but Is Really Mostly Concerned With Her Stock Portfolio Taking a Beating in This Awful Economy.