Girl

"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.

It's not a classic by any means, but it's a decent coming of age story about a young girl, with evolution and maturity. Lot of actors in here that went on to bigger things. Dominique Swain in the 90s was a precious wonder. You either knew about her or you didn't, and if you did, you've already seen this movie, like I have. She made the movie good. She has a quality about her that even when she's playing a naive dorky girl, you identify with her. She has presence even though she's not the best actress. She's watchable. The movie runs into teen clichés but it's still a good watch.

This movie is just sad. It's "My So-Called Life" without the depth or interesting characters. It's "Clueless" without the endearing charm, heart, or entertainment. And yet it's somehow undeniably totally derived from both. Swain herself not only actually physically resembles both Alicia Silverstone and Claire Danes (especially with the ruby-dyed hair), but her narration even seems to fall halfway in between "Clueless"' poignant perkiness and "My So Called Life's" dark brooding. The hitch is that both can't possibly be done properly at the same time, and "Girl" is shining proof of that. This movie is so directionless and muddled that I'm kind of upset I bothered to watch it. It attempts to tackle just about every possible teen issue it can, which does not help it either. No scene in the movie is longer than a minute and a half, and not one of the million or so tangent plot lines ever becomes fully developed. And not one of the multitude of characters is ever deveolped even enough for the audience to care about them in the least. And on top of that, the movie is tremendously out of touch. The characters are all one dimensional stereotypical representations that some studio exec thinks are what "real" teens are like. This whole movie feels so condensed and confused that I honestly couldn't possibly summarize the plot. I think it has something to do with this chick having a crush, but the movie goes so far off the path trying to be an extra-glossy after-school special that it completely self-destructs. It's not good in the beginning and it only gets more embarassing as the movie reaches its absurd conclusions (which do not provide any character resolution or moral to any of the stories anyway). Pretty sad crap.

I read the book after I saw the movie, and the book to me was less real. I thought that Andrea and her overthought, psuedo-angsty voice-overs were what made her real. She was a little rich girl who essentially knew that she wanted for nothing, yet she's searching to fill a hole that she knows isn't really there. Complete with bad poetry-like flowery language and long sighs and large gestures, I thought that Andrea in the movie was real, and Andrea in the book was flat, uninspired. I didn't even hate Todd Sparrow, as has been mentioned by other viewers. I thought that the whole movie was about stupid little people doing stupid little things and learning from them, like how it really happens. I didn't think girl was oscar material, by any means, but I think that there will be a character that everyone will see a bit of themselves in.

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.