Movie Review by Dr Kuma
Starring: Sienna Miller, Hayden Christensen, Jimmy Fallon, Mena Suvari,
Director: George Hickenlooper
This is the latest in a long line of biopics revolving around famous 1960’s figures. This time the story follows the tragic life of Edie Sedgwick, a beautiful, wealthy, young, party girl drops out of art school to head towards the bright lights of New York after being inspired by Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (written by Truman Capote who’s had two biopic’s in as many years – this years INFAMOUS being by far and away the best). When she meets a young artist named Andy Warhol, he promises to make her the star she always wanted to be. Of course this rise is only the start of her dramatic fall.
Brimming with impressive performances all round this is an excellent, if depressing picture. The revelation here was Sienna Miller, whose performance is as exceptional, as is her likeness to the true life figure she is portraying. Stick around for the end credits in which we see the real people portrayed in the film talking about Sedgwick with accompanying montages. The similarity between actress and subject is truly amazing. Also worth mentioning are the excellent performances of the always superb Guy Pearce as Warhol and Hayden Christensen, who seems to have come in for a great deal of unfair criticism. He plays “The Musician” as the actual artist is, I’m led to believe, less than happy with the way he is portrayed. See the movie to see who it is – although names are never used Christensen actually doesn’t need to open his mouth as it’s obvious whom he’s portraying.
The film has had very mixed reviews and a lot of column space spent saying how Christensen and Miller actually took method acting to the extreme in the sex scenes. That’s daft as DON’T LOOK BACK this ain’t, pleasant (though brief) as the scenes may be.
All in all a sobering tale of how many casualties the swinging 60’s left in its wake.
Dr Kuma’s verdict: This Factory Girl is a one off and much better than some of the conveyor belt biopics that have rolled off the production lines in recent years.
