Factory Girl (2006)
7/10
Surprisingly good?
7 May 2007
A long time ago, when I was going through my Velvet Underground period (i.e. I bought some cassettes - eeek! - of the first two albums, and played them incessantly for a couple of months), I purchased a book called "Up-tight: The Velvet Underground Story" by Victor Bockris and and Gerard Malanga (who is actually portrayed in the movie). On page 9 of the book there is a three storey still of Edie Sedgwick taken from an Andy Warhol movie "Screen Test #1".

I'm looking at that picture now. Beautiful looking girl. Really stunning. To my eyes now she looks quite a bit like Melissa George. I think it's the jutting bottom lip that does it. In the book there is a little bit about Edie Sedgwick. She was a face at Warhol's Factory. She was a party girl. She appeared at some of Warhol's happenings and in some of his movies That is about all of knew about Edie Sedgwick.

I saw a trailer for "Factory Girl". It's a period of time that I am interested in and the trailer indicated that it could be a good movie. I knew of Sienna Miller. She was good in "Alfie", even though it is an abomination of the original movie, and she was sexy in her little bit in "Layer Cake". Probably she is more famous now due to her tabloid activities and the whole Jude Law thing. I recognised Hayden Christensen, obviously because of the last three "Star Wars" movies, although he didn't particularly make an impression on me in those films. I didn't recognise the guy playing Andy Warhol. Not at all. I nearly fell off my seat when at the end of the trailer it said that it was Guy Pearce.

(Jabber, jabber, jabber. Get on with it.) I thought that "Factory Girl" is a very good movie. I really enjoyed it. Very strong performances from Sienna Miller (surprisingly?) and Guy Pearce. Hayden Christensen is remote as (whisper it, because officially it is not him) Bob Dylan, but the character is supposed to be standoffish anyway, so maybe that works. The film is very evocative of time and place. It reminded me a lot of the chaotic nature of "The Doors" movie. The colours, the music, the drugs, the chaos, the pushing at the edges, the disintegration. Great soundtrack as well.

Maybe the events didn't quite happen the way the movie presents them, but I certainly would recommend the movie.
3 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed