Dirty Girl

"If it's a man's world God wouldn't have made me." Danielle (Temple) lives life on her own terms. When her mouth gets her in trouble at school she is sent to the "special" classroom. After an assignment pairs her up with a school loser her life is forever changed. The saying goes don't judge a book by it's cover, that could not be more true for this movie. The first ten minutes is what you would expect but from then on it becomes an emotional movie that deals with some pretty heavy subjects. The acting is great in this and there is an all-star cast along with some surprising cameos. If I keep talking I am afraid I will give something away and that would do the movie an injustice. Much like the movie "Good Old Fashioned Orgy" I think that the movie would get a better audience if the title was different. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie. Overall, a very surprising movie that was much much better then I expected. I give it an A-.

"Nobody likes a dirty girl," Principal Mulray (Grubbs) tells Danielle (Temple) early on. She is a promiscuous adolescent, full of life, spunk, attitude, and guts. But she comes from a background that isn't so full of life and gutsy. Her mother (Jovovich) was a tramp in high school and because of that Danielle has never heard of or met her real father. After discovering her father's real identity, she packs up and hits the road going across Oklahoma to find him. She also does it to avoid her mother's new Mormon fiancée (Macy) and his outlandish punishment of virtually abandoning one of their own to show how important family is. My guess anyone would abandon him at first chance.

Danielle takes the car of her chubby, homosexual friend from Sex Ed. class Clarke (played fantastically by Jeremy Dozier). Clarke's father (Yoakam) has been verbally and physically abusive to his son for many years and is only further outraged to find out of his sexual orientation. Thankfully, the film, mostly, doesn't play Clarke's sexuality for laughs. We have a strong sense that he can't help his feelings, and is dealing with them in the only way he knows how to. Guys and girls alike proclaim their love for the opposite sex, why can't Clarke? Danielle and Clarke also take a sack of flour (their "baby" from Sex Ed. class) along on the ride and boy does the kid get the journey of her life.

Dirty Girl is an exciting, sort of refreshing gem that mimics not only the eighties style of rebellion, but bathes in a surprisingly dramatic bath of coming of age storytelling. Going into this expecting a solid comedy with laughs and humor galore, I was stunned to see how heavy the dramatic elements are. In many ways, this is a very sad view on one's adolescence and sometimes the laughs we get are because of insecurity and stem from the fact that their true feelings are hidden.

There's also a nice blend of wit and soul in the writing. In some ways this could be an account of writer/director Abe Sylvia's life. He grew up homosexual in Oklahoma and had been working on this story since around 2004. The film's bawdy nature is fast paced and entertaining, but Dirty Girl seems to stem from a world a lot more sentimental in emotions than we could've thought.

For an independent film, it certainly packs in some credible names. Milla Jovovich is a nice addition to the cast, Temple is very convincing, Dozier is the star of the entire film, Macy is about ten miles away from his character of Frank Gallagher in Shameless, and Tim McGraw and Dwight Yoakam are delightfully unexpected.

In many ways Dirty Girl is funny, charming, delightful, and satisfying. In many ways it's dark, sad, depressing, and begging to be loved. We have two insecure characters that go about their insecurity in totally different ways. One, giving herself up to anyone and everyone, and the other just sitting by idly in high school taking the hatred from his peers and probably his classmates. It's a sad world after all.

Starring: Juno Temple, Jeremy Dozier, Milla Jovovich, William H. Macy, and Dwight Yoakam. Directed by: Abe Sylvia.

The title hurt the acceptance of this film. It earned $143k world wide. Juno has done 12 nude scenes in movie and TV in the past decade, that being said, nudity would detract from this movie. Itis really a pretty emotional ending.

This movie was rated 37% on Metacritic and 27% on Rotten tomatoes and honestly I think this is wrong, wrong, wrong. I expect this is because the title is misleading...the movie is not about a "dirty girl" at all, it's about a journey of discovery and maturation and the transformative power of friendship. The writing is not particularly sophisticated so in lesser hands the movie could easily have sucked. However the two lead actors were so engaging (and the supporting cast were also excellent) that what could have felt like a flat, unconvincing story was, in my opinion, extremely touching. I confess toward the end I was crying in sympathy for the loss experienced by the main characters. Thankfully, the final scenes in the movie turned this into a positive (and even mildly cathartic) experience. I had become invested in the characters (so you see, I cannot possibly trash this movie the way so many others have).

It's 1987 Oklahoma. Danielle Edmondston (Juno Temple) is a dirty girl. She has sex with the boys. She gets dropped into the special class filled with misfits. She befriends outcast Clarke Walters (Jeremy Dozier) who is coming to terms with his homosexuality. Her home life with her mother Sue-Ann (Milla Jovovich) is chaotic as she is about to marry Ray (William H. Macy). Danielle and Clarke go on a road trip to search for her birth father as Clarke's parents (Dwight Yoakam, Mary Steenburgen) chase after him.

I want to root for Danielle and Clarke. The movie needs more comedy. It's not that funny. With better comedy, the buddy chemistry would take care of itself. The movie would be much improved. It also relies too much on musical interludes. The story is a bit too messy. I wish the movie and the dialog is better written.