Andrea, inocencia perdida

I watched this movie thinking "hey, there are some good actors in this, so it might be good". yeah right, i was totally wrong about that. This movie is about a teenaged girl who really, really, wants to have sex. She thinks that having sex will make her a woman. What she really wants is to have sex with a guy in a band who she idolizes and she just happens to know his sister. She can't really have him so she just loses her virginity to a guy who she deems as being "ugly" and "disgusting" yet, the actor playing him is pretty goodlooking and the guy is pretty nice to her. oh yeah, it gets worse. After this, she finally gets to have sex with the guy in the band, and so she becomes his groupie. Going around with him on his tour and having sex with him whenever possible including in a barn. After all this, she realizes that she didn't need to have sex to be a woman (duh!). The most annoying part is at the end when one of her friends says to her "You are so strong, I wish I could be more like you". what? so during this movie, we were actually supposed to like the main character? She is a doofus. Really, this movie is just a glorified, and more dramatic version of Ammerican Pie. It's all about sex, sex, and sex except the main character isnt as likeable.

This movie was a true heartache of a film. Girl, originally a novel by Blake Nelson, was the story of a highschool girl who discovers sex and the local music scene. Both enrich her life and make her feel differently in relationships with other people. It was a well written, subtle but powerful book that affected the lives of many young women. Sadly, the movie is studio junk.

The director and screenwriter chose instead to turn this into a movie about hot highschoolers going at it and acting like groupies. Each character has been flattened out to a cutesy stereotype. For example, Tara Reid was chosen to play Cybil, who in the book is a lesbian rocker and very withdrawn. The movie really has no plot, other than Andrea chasing around Todd as if she is an NSync groupie. I felt like I watched a two hour commercial for noxema or saw a 17 magazine come to life as a movie.

If you want to watch a goofy film about over sexed teenagers, rent this movie. If you want something th more heart, read the book. Or better yet, rent Blue Car or Thirteen.

The setup is all too familiar: we have a girl who wonders about life. She has sex, is disappointed in love (always mildly by our measures) and thus "grows up."

Its a persistent fiction that is glued into filmdom and god knows how many lives it has bent.

But as these go, this one isn't as tendentious as the others. I think that's because of the triple narrative structure.

The main narrative is the girl (here Dominique Swain fresh from "Lolita"), who tells us what is going on in her mind. Thhings like "I wish I could grow up." Sometimes her narration is her thoughts in the story rather than over it, such as when she says something polite but is thinking something rude.

The second narrative is the story we see of course. Naturally, all the sex is akin to dreamy cuddling.

The third narrative is embedded in the story, the narrative of incisive rock songs. Indeed, they are rock songs about the very stuff of the story and inspired by the story itself. The three are woven together, each commenting on the other.

Few young viewers will notice, but this is pretty sophisticated storytelling. Even though every thing in it is empty and borrowed, the whole seems much fresher.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

I didn't read the book & didn't walk in with preconceived notions. Basically a coming of age film about a girl attracted to a fledgling rock star and she falls into the "groupie" mindset & lifestyle for a bit. Nothing epic but everyone plays their part well & it's an entertaining movie.

"he poured his soul into the air and it condensed and dripped into my hands."... huh? Now I have read some other comments about this movie that say it is an accurate portrayal of teenage life. Honestly who has ever thought to them self that someone was pouring their tangible soul into the air. This movie was filled with ridiculous metaphors that were side splitting good fun. It was a pseudo intellectual blowout. The dialogue was unrealistic rambling done so seriously that I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Its directing was so bland and unoriginal that it gave me a headache. I recommend this movie to the misanthropes and debasers of the world who love to see failure.