Lover Girl

Jake is a teenager looking for a place to stay. When both her mom and her sister off her, she starts following Marcy around. Who, we later find out works at a massage parlor, in which three of Marcy's friends are also employed. Jake, while being inside to use the bathroom discovers what kind of massage parlor it is. Instantly intrigued, she hangs around, whether against Marcy's will or not. Jake found a place she wants to be. I found this film to be one of the most touching I've seen. It really got me involved with the characters, and the acting by everyone was great. It really is a movie about bonding, and I think it's beautifully done. The best part is, Jake can name fifty different kinds of candy, and go into detail about each one.

16-year-old Jake Ferrari (Tara Subkoff) needs a place to stay after her mother left again. She tracks down her older sister Darlene (Kristy Swanson) in L.A. who hasn't seen her in a decade. Darlene refuses to take her in but neighbor Marci (Sandra Bernhard) does. Marci manages a massage parlor and Jake gets a job there.

This has a fitting amount of grim. The low budget indie fits the low class establishment. Mostly, I like the actresses although this isn't much of a drama. Subkoff has a slacker, low intensity waif persona. Swanson injects a good amount of mean spirit. I don't buy the ending. The owner would never fire all the girls but at least the movie wraps up quickly. Tension is never that high and it needed to end.

Easy to laugh and smile with the characters and at their antics. Real life interactions throughout this flick resulting in the viewer rooting and hoping for their success. Tara Subkoff's portrayal of a young teenager spot on. Kristy Swanson's personation of the heartlessness of mankind incredibly realistic. Kudo's for Sandra's Bernhard's depiction of a working girl's sense of right and wrong. Tim Griffin very convincing as a young man saddled with hormones, desire, awkwardness and white knight syndrome. Sadly, some sex, cussing present and no mention of the real Savior JESUS. One suspects this rendering of life in big city California not much different than life in many a city throughout the world and throughout time. Would watch it again.

I came across this title on cable one night and noticed that it was produced by Allison Anders, who directed a couple interesting movies in the early 90's, and featured Tara Subkoff from "All Over Me" and a really interesting supporting cast including Sandra Bernhart (in a rare film role), Susan Tyrell, Kristi Swanson, and Renee Humphrey. It isn't really a good movie--parts of it are rather implausible and the end is pretty disappointing--but it has a strange and interesting feel to it. It lacks the heightened drama and rigid three-act structure of a typical Hollywood movie. It's very subtle and surprisingly non-exploitative, especially considering it's sordid subject matter. Yet it isn't some arty,pretentious feminist claptrap either(like the overrated "Working Girls" a few years earlier). It seems to somehow be more "real" than your typical movie. It contains real characters (albeit in a pretty unusual situation) whose lives don't really seem to going anywhere in particular and whose problems you know are not going to be resolved after two hours. It kind of reminded me of "Ghost World" (the comic book more than the movie). It's probably not a real easy movie to find, but it's definitely worth finding.

I will admit that this movie managed to hold my attention in a way that many admittedly better movies have not. Reason? There just aren't that many hooker comedies that skirt the subject of sex the way this one does. That struck me as novel while I was watching it and made me think the filmmakers were attempting something more ambitious than the usual chortling over sex. Tara Subkoff is very watchable and likable as a gangly, awkward young prostie wannabe. She has the unique ability to project awkwardness, emotional need and immaturity, mix it up and have it come out something like bohemian cool. I got a lot of insight into a whole generation of disaffected youth watching this flick. Cool, indeed.