This Girl's Life (2003)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Ash Baron-Cohen

Writer:

Ash Baron-Cohen (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

"Slice of life" take on life of international porn celebrity, Moon, and her musings on modern life, love and loss.

Plot Keywords:

Friend | Blind Date | Porn Star | Attraction | Parkinsons Disease

Awards:

1 win

Cast

James Woods	...	Pops
Juliette Marquis	...	Moon
Kip Pardue	...	Kip
Tomas Arana	...	Aronson
Michael Rapaport	...	Terry
Rosario Dawson	...	Martine
Isaiah Washington	...	Shane
Ioan Gruffudd	...	Daniel
Cheyenne Silver	...	Cheyenne
Kam Heskin	...	Jessie
Alexi Yulish	...	Nick Hudson
Sean Douglas	...	Marco
Sherrie Rose	...	Nurse
Sung Hi Lee	...	Kobi
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Chase Bramlage	...	Jason
Maria Cina	...	Reporter
Ken Davitian
Peter Dobson
David Alan Graf	...	Cab Driver
Jimmy Jean-Louis	...	Action Jackson
Alexander Keith
Kelli King	...	Young Moon
Sangini Majmudar	...	Indian wife
Isley Nicole Melton	...	Friend
Joel Michaely	...	Jetson
Mac Miller
Jay Montalvo	...	Latino man
Kimberly Rowe
Bob Sattler	...	Police Officer
Graham Shiels	...	Skinhead
Katherine Taub	...	Receptionist
Natalie Taylor	...	Mal
Wendy Thompson	...	Skinny Girl

Directed by
Ash Baron-Cohen		(as Ash)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ash Baron-Cohen		writer (as Ash)

Produced by
Ash Baron-Cohen	....	producer (as Ash)
Daniel M. Berger	....	co-producer
Ann Friday	....	associate producer
Chris Hanley	....	producer
David Hillary	....	producer
Clark McCutchen	....	co-producer
Richard Middleton	....	line producer
Timothy Wayne Peternel	....	co-executive producer
Daniela Roth	....	associate producer
Douglas Salkin	....	co-producer
Allyson Tang	....	co-producer
Boro Vukadinovic	....	executive producer
Boro Vukadinovic	....	producer
David Alan Graf	....	co-executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Bob Durham

Cinematography by
Alessandro Zezza

Film Editing by
Jim Kelly
Troy Takaki

Casting by
Shannon Makhanian

Production Design by
Daniel M. Berger

Set Decoration by
Kathleen Noonan

Costume Design by
Marcelo Pequeño

Makeup Department
Jack Abernethy	....	assistant hair stylist
Wendy Boscon	....	key hair stylist
Kyndra Ester	....	assistant hair stylist
Jennifer Greenberg	....	assistant makeup artist
Eva Lohse	....	assistant makeup artist
Aoife O'Daliagh	....	assistant makeup artist
Kirsten Simitzi	....	assistant makeup artist
Sherri Simmons	....	assistant makeup artist
Tatiana Thorpe	....	key makeup artist
Anh Co Tran	....	assistant hair stylist

Production Management
Anthony B. Palmer	....	unit production manager
Douglas Salkin	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Bryan Kalfus	....	second second assistant director
W. Alex Korp	....	second assistant director
Nicholas Lee	....	first assistant director: reshoots
Rafael Orozco	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Brian Kline	....	lead man
Eric LaBonte	....	swing
Tim Mallory	....	property master
John Robertson	....	lead man
Brian Russo	....	assistant property master

Sound Department
Gary Alexander	....	sound re-recording mixer
Gary Alexander	....	supervising re-recording mixer
Chase Bramlage	....	boom operator
Christopher Eakins	....	sound effects editor
Christopher Eakins	....	supervising sound editor
Margaret Gillespie	....	sound utility
Stanley Kastner	....	sound re-recording mixer
Mark Andre Kneer	....	sound editor
Donald Lyles	....	sound recordist
John Marquis	....	sound designer
Ted Phillips	....	sound mixer
Shannon Potter	....	sound recordist
Monica Ruiz	....	sound assistant
Christopher Sheldon	....	supervising sound editor
Pablo Solorzano	....	sound recordist

Special Effects by
Wayne Beauchamp	....	special effects coordinator

Visual Effects by
Christopher Dusendschon	....	digital imaging supervisor: iO FILM (as Christopher Dusendschön)

Stunts
Monica Staggs	....	stunt double: Juliette Marquis
Gary J. Wayton	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Randall James Bol	....	electrician
Jennifer Chieppa	....	camera intern
Greg Code	....	Steadicam operator
Henry Dhuy	....	still photographer
Deanna Esmaeel	....	camera operator: second unit
Jesse Feldman	....	first assistant camera
Edward Green	....	assistant camera
Keely Grigel	....	electrician
Trevor Houghton	....	electrician
Gaylan Andrew Hussain	....	key grip
Scott Johnston	....	first assistant camera
Kurt Jones	....	Steadicam operator
Alexandra Lucka	....	second assistant camera (as Alex Luca)
Euripides Núñez	....	gaffer
Jason Perr	....	videographer
Sean Piper	....	electrician
Michael Skor	....	first assistant camera
Brad Wallace	....	first assistant camera

Casting Department
Jennifer Goldstein	....	casting associate

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Chay Santini	....	set costumer
Andrea Sweet	....	costume supervisor
Sara Walbridge	....	set costumer

Editorial Department
Angela M. Catanzaro	....	assistant editor
Nneka Goforth	....	assistant editor
Spencer Hecox	....	on-line editor
John Paul Horstmann	....	first assistant editor
Mato	....	color timer

Music Department
Aaron Jacoves	....	music supervisor
Lee Scheinbaum	....	music supervisor

Other crew
Randall James Bol	....	additional best boy
Sean Callahan	....	key set production assistant
Jonathan Dana	....	producer's representative
Al DaRodda	....	production assistant
Deanna Esmaeel	....	HDTV technician
Angela Harp	....	production assistant
Mike Hoy	....	production assistant
Forest James	....	production assistant
Darla Lansu	....	assistant production coordinator
Christina K.Y. Lee	....	production coordinator
Clark McCutchen	....	production attorney
Beth Multer	....	script supervisor
Sasha Popovic	....	location manager
Matt Robertson	....	location manager
Claire Varney	....	unit publicist
Lisa Villaire	....	craft service
Rob Weston	....	producer's representative

Thanks
A.J. Robbins	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Departure Entertainment
• Departure Studios
• Muse Productions
• TGL Inc.

Distributors

• Miracle Mile Films (2004) (USA) (theatrical)
• CRC Entertainment (Italy) (video)
• Content and More (Germany) (video)
• Eagle Entertainment (Australia)
• Future Film (2008) (Finland) (DVD)
• Hart Sharp Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• IMD (2004) (France) (video)
• Lightning Entertainment (2004) (worldwide) (all media) (sales)
• MPA Limited (2004) (Brazil) (video)
• New World Pictures (Thailand) (video)
• PRA Films (Turkey)
• Paradiso/MS Trading (Netherlands)
• Prisvídeo (Portugal) (video)
• Prooptiki (Yugoslavia)
• Ster-Kinekor Home Entertainment (Soviet Union) (video)
• e-m-s the DVD-Company (2005) (Germany) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Straightwire Films  sales representative

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexuality including graphic dialogue, nudity, violence, language and brief drug use.

Runtime:

104 min | USA:101 min (cut version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | New Zealand:R18 | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:R (Manitoba/Ontario) | USA:R (edited version) | Singapore:R21 | Iceland:16 | South Korea:18 | Australia:R

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Departure Entertainment

Quotes:

Moon: I'm not gonna wait until I die to find out if there is reincarnation. We can reincarnate while we live, right?

Movie Connections:

References "The Real World" (1992)

Soundtrack:

Save Yourself

Better than it has a right to be.

After the success of the inexpensively made trade movie "Boogie Nights," one might expect a series of even cheaper and less skillful ripoffs. The usual trajectory for ripoffs would be more sex and less character.

I suppose in some ways, we wouldn't have "This Girl's Life" if we hadn't had "Boogie Nights," but this film is actually pretty good. If the earlier film was mostly an ensemble effort, this one depends on Juliette Marquis. We see things almost exclusively from her point of view. She's a porn star with a heart of gold and some brains. It sounds like a cliché, but she pulls it off okay. She's not exactly beautiful but she is sexy and exotic and has a nasal voice that sometimes drops into the lower register.

But Marquis gets surprisingly good support from such mainstream players as Rosario Dawson, and adequate support from Cheyenne Silver, a genuine star of sex films who has a fresh-faced attractiveness that suggests she grew up on a farm and fed on nothing but cream and ripe strawberries. Anyone who wants to see what she looks like all over can easily have his curiosity satisfied with a bit of effort.

James Woods is super as Pops, Marquis' father who is stricken with Parksinson's disease. He's a courageous actor, wandering around in public with what seems to be an enormous head and a shrunken flabby body. The only investment of ego on display is his talent.

If "Boogie Nights" showed us that the sex movie industry of the 1970s was like a family, "This Girl's Life" demonstrates that the family is not entirely functional these days. The head of the studio keeps carrying on paternally about how we are all one big -- incestuous -- family, but when he wants one of his girls to do something that she does not want to do, he prompts her to do a line of coke and shoves her roughly against a wall. Spare the rod and spoil the child, you know.

The director has Marquis talk directly to the camera on several occasions, as if this were a reality TV show. She shows us how a microvideocamera works, a "spy camera" like that used in police and FBI stings. And there are times when scenes appear as if shot with one of those tiny cameras, all fuzzy and with horizontal lines. Not sure what the point of that was. And I'm not sure what happens to Pop either. His case seems to be hanging in the air at the end when, after a violent encounter with a man whose life Marquis has just professionally put an end to, she takes off with her naive young monogamous lover.

I assume -- I HOPE -- that she finally got back to taking care of Pops, because his disorder is rather advanced and it would take him an hour to peel a banana.

In any case, the very amateurishness of some of the performances contributes to the documentary feel of the film, but it's a documentary that is emotionally charged.

A surprise, well worth watching.