Academy Award-nominated actor Ryan Gosling has probably had the best year of anybody in the movie industry this year. He kicked things off at the very end of 2010/start of 2011 with Blue Valentine, and then had a flawless final third of the year with Crazy, Stupid, Love., Drive, and The Ides of March all tremendously well received in the past few months.

Drive, in particular, found rapturous praise amongst critics and cinemagoers alike – and with very good reason – and Gosling is hotly tipped as an Oscar contender for his roles both in that and George Clooney’s The Ides of March.

Having had such a terrific end to 2011, things are already looking brilliant for 2012, and The Playlist report that the outlook may have got even better with the possibility emerging that Gosling might be joining the Bret Easton Ellis-penned The Golden Suicides.

The Golden Suicides is based on the true story of the suicides of Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake within a week of each other back in 2007, allegedly following harassment from Scientologists. Their story isn’t one that I was familiar with, but a bit of research on Wikipedia tells me that Blake was seen walking into the ocean off Rockaway Beach in New York a week after finding his partner, Duncan, having committed suicide in their apartment. Already, the cinematic image of Blake walking into the ocean is an incredibly haunting one conjured in my mind.

Ellis, of course best known as the author of American Psycho, has been working on the screenplay for a few years. Gus Van Sant has consulted on the project, but without intending to direct, and it now looks like Gasper Noé (Irreversible, Enter The Void) will be taking the helm, and he’s been meeting with Gosling, for what would presumably be the role of Blake.

According to Ellis’ Twitter,

“Ryan came to meet Gaspar Noe who is directing The Golden Suicides. The 25 year-old broke up with me when I said we couldn’t stay for dinner.”

By “The 25-year-old,” I think [with Chloé's helpful information in the comments below] Ellis is referring to his partner, and it’s completely understandable – you’d no doubt hold it against someone who made you turn down the opportunity to have dinner with Gosling too. The man is a true king among men, and in my opinion, he’s by far one of the finest young actors we’ve seen in a long time.

Gosling already has two films, The Place Beyond The Pines and Gangster Squad, in post-production due out next year, and is set to return to work with his Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn on Only God Forgives, as well as joining Christian Bale, Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, and Haley Bennett on Terrence Malick’s Lawless. So needless to say, 2012 could well be another busy shooting year for the actor, and as such, his involvement with The Golden Suicides is probably still in the early stages, with nothing official to announce yet.

With a bit of luck, though, the project will come together nicely in the coming weeks and months, and if Gosling’s having dinner with the project’s director, I’ll take that as a good sign. I’m always eager to hear more about a new Gosling production, and seeing him working with Ellis and Noé on this sounds like something to get excited about already. Hopefully we’ll have something concrete to bring you soon. More news as we get it.

It is not as if American Psycho is hallowed ground, like Casablanca or Gone With The Wind. It is just that a remake is so very unnecessary. Although the original came out over a decade ago, it was set in the 1980′s and so it can’t really be argued to be dated. It looks as though the planned remake will be set in a more contemporary New York, possibly addressing how the city has changed since the milieu of the book and original film. That is all well and good, though it could be argued that the milieu of the original was part of its distinctive quality and that to take the story out of that environment does more than a little violence to Bret Easton Ellis’s work.

Matters are not helped by news that the writer Lionsgate have employed to rework the script, Noble Jones, has written one short film five years ago and since then has worked as a cinematographer and second unit director. That is not to cast aspersions at his ability as a writer, he may well be extremely talented, but it doesn’t look good when a seeming novice is attached to such a high profile project. Jones has apparently finished the script and wants to shoot it as well, as a “down and dirty low budget” film. Hmm. We will see.

Source: Variety and Deadline.

Actress Sasha Grey states that her name was dually inspired by The Kinsey Scale of sexuality and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.  It is Dorian Gray I recall as I sit in a tiny screening room with the crisp, Vogue editorial, beauty of The Girlfriend Experience unfurling on the screen before me.  Utter lack of affect in the face of unspeakable actions.  Is prostitution unspeakable?  Perhaps, at least, it is the latter-day love that dare not speak its name.

When Steven Soderbergh selected Grey as his muse for this Sex, Lies and Videotape for an Apprentice generation, speculation was rife (and ribald) that The Girlfriend Experience would be as blue as the economic mood upon its release.  Pleasingly nothing could be further from the truth.

The Girlfriend Experience presents five days in the life of a unique independent contractor ““ Manhattan call girl Chelsea.  Chelsea’s $2000 an hour services conjure the illusion of an immersive relationship-lite.  Sexually she is a consummate courtesan but emotionally her role is closer to that of Geisha.  Solicitous, fascinated and utterly, china doll, detached.  Boyfriend Chris (Chris Santos) is fully aware of Chelsea’s double identity.  Chris understands the pressure of a life trading one’s self as a commodity ““ every cent of profit he makes over his wage goes to fill the coffers of the downtown gym where he trains the wealthy and time-impaired.  He is at an impasse and struggling to find a way forward.

While Chris struggles, Chelsea has an opportunity to introduce her charms to the readers of an influential punter-review forum.  She sleeps with the lecherous webmaster, he raves about her performance online.  He is paid in kind, she in custom.  Surely her flawless professional facade can withstand such a trade?  The story we see in broken fragments suggests not.  Chelsea’s dynamic with Chris has become as close to GFE as any $2000 encounter so new client Phillip appears a kindred spirit and an escape when her tightly knitted-life begins to unravel…

I suspect that many people will go to see The Girlfriend Experience expecting a dialogue on the cause and effect of life as a working girl ““ it is after all the cause du (Belle de) jour.  Others will go to see a little T&A.  They will all be disappointed.  In The Girlfriend Experience Steven Soderbergh has created a film which doesn’t proffer gift wrapped answers to the viewer.  There are no life lessons here.  Much has been made of the life-landscape behind GFE shot, as it was, in the weeks leading up to the 2008 Presidential election.  As he favours structured improvisation the “˜civilian’ cast were encouraged to speak just as they would in life, to discuss the headlines of the day and banter about the minutiae of their lives.  Thus the issues of the wider economy underscore the personal concerns of the cast and offer a timely context to a story originally conceived in 2006.  The important thing to bear in mind though is that this tale could take place at any period of modern history because it is a story unique to Chelsea and the extraordinary world she occupies.

I will confess to having been a little disconcerted by the way The Girlfriend Experience ““ as both a movie and a concept ““ has been represented in reviews.  I have read much that reinforces an idea of Chelsea as executive toy.  Or even as a bespoke provider of instant coupledom for the busy man-about-town.  The consensus appearing to be that GFE as a service is primarily about the G, that other distasteful F word diluted by phrases such as more than sex. Let me be very clear here then ““ The Girlfriend Experience is a film about a prostitute.  It is a realistic and direct look at one successful working girl’s working week.  It is doubtful that many of her clients are paying thousands of dollars for vanilla lovemaking and companionship.  To not accept this as fact is to misunderstand the absolute accuracy of Grey’s standout performance.  You want pretence, watch Pretty Woman.       

Of Sasha’s performance James Rocchi at Cinematical wrote “Grey is not a great actress — I can’t really imagine her playing Ophelia or one of the Three Sisters”. I cannot help but agree.  As one of the new power players in pop culture and contemporary porn I imagine, should Ms Grey set her sights on The Dane, she would insist upon playing the man himself!  In appearance her Chelsea recalls Alison Lohman’s transient foster child in Peter Kosminsky’s White Oleander ““ a cool, pale canvas awaiting interpretation.  For me though, in performance, Grey is pure Jennifer Jason Leigh ““ clever, complex and carnal.  She credits Leigh as one of her heroines and there are echoes of the same temperament and tone here.  I wonder that she has not received more praise for her compelling turn.  When she is on screen she commands your focus utterly.

Together DP Peter Andrews and Steven Soderbergh have created a striking film.  It has an authenticity that owes a great deal to the inexperience of the cast who, besides Grey, were predominantly playing variations on themselves.  Irrespective of the 2008 setting, its gloss, materialism and magazine shoot aesthetic lend an undeniable 1980s tone.  Further reinforced by the scattergun chatter of men on a Vegas bound jet that punctuates throughout. And anyone familiar with Bret Easton Ellis’s searing social commentary American Psycho will feel the retro force at its strongest as Chelsea meticulously details every outfit she wears.  The attention to detail is impeccable, her presentation so Rachel-Zoe-by-numbers as to be a gentle pastiche.  The red light camera emphasises the photo shoot effect, lending the available light all the mighty powers of an art department airbrush, so that the jumps from then to now and back become a flip through the pages of a life.

Chelsea hides behind her Zoe-disciple shades, impeccable wardrobe and the lowered gaze of a false-lashed eye.  In place of self-awareness, surface.  We never get any closer and we never understand.  She shields the dangers of her job with superstition as her only safeguard.  We see her in a town car with a driver, incongruously young against the formality of the backseat and lunching in a restaurant with a friend chattering about life and work.  We see her at home lounging on an overstuffed couch and we see her taking investment advice from a Hassidic jeweller client before taking him into the back room for the unfriendly F.  We see her at home, at work and at play.  We never see who she is.

The Girlfriend Experience offers no new ammunition to either side of the prostitution debate and it is much the better film for it.  It credits the audience with the ability to simply let it be what it is.  For that reason The Girlfriend Experience stands out as one of my favourite films this year and one I unreservedly recommend.

The Girlfriend Experience is released in the UK on 4th December

Read our exclusive interview with Sasha Grey here

View the full trailer below