Today the Cannes market opened, showing works for industry badge holders, morning to night, in 27 official theaters. Some of those titles are unfinished, so I'm not at liberty to discuss them. Such was the case this morning for the doc anthology FREAKONOMICS (based on the best-selling book) which had a 16-minute segment shown by the sales company Celsius. Following that screening, I caught a film that I can discuss because it's already playing stateside on VOD, Steven Soderbergh's THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE.  Karina Longworth has a smart review on SpoutBlog. 

In the film, Sasha Grey, who's better known for her porn roles, plays an elite call girl trying to balance her professional and personal relationships, set against the economic uncertainty of Manhattan in fall 2008. The film is loaded with references to the most fashionable restaurants, clothes and other cultural signifiers. So when a rich client takes Grey's character out on a date, guess what movie they see? Answer: MAN ON WIRE. This must mark some breakthrough for documentaries in the zeitgeist. Or maybe it's product placement since both MAN ON WIRE and GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE are distributed by Magnolia Pictures.