Dirty Girl

"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.

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.

I saw Dirty Girl at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 and it was amazing!!!

I thought it had a good blend of drama and comedy therefore when things got heavy or sad I didn't get depressed or too down because a few scenes later I would be laughing.

I thought it was the best portrayal of the beauty of a relationship between a gay man and a straight woman since Will & Grace. It also had a great soundtrack. I can't wait to have a movie night at my house with this movie. It was just a fun movie with depth. No academy award worthy performances in my opinion but the acting is definitely good but no mind blowing performances.

My fav film of TIFF 2010

When I first came across the movie name I thought this is another stupid nude movie with dirty jokes, but when i saw everyone in the internet recommending people to watch it, I decided to give me a shot. To my surprise, the title didn't match the plot at all. The whole story is about true friendship and family relationships, and though it did have a lot of swears and strip dances, it is quite touching to me and it has a great meaning behind this movie.

Although my English sucks and the movie is shown two years before, and I expect no one to see my comment, I just hope that people who loves comedies won't miss this one out.

I'm a cliché artsy girl form NYC and often i look forward to films like these.. you know the little indie gems that not many people have heard of.. Dirty Girl was like a treat for me and i can watch it again and again.It's not a perfect film and definitely not mainstream, but absolutely entertaining. Juno Temple couldn't have played this part any better as a young promiscuous teenage girl who seems confident and unafraid to conquer the world but is actually quite vulnerable and easily broken.. Clark was so lovable as the fat gay best friend and hopeless romantic, even with all their flaws , the chemistry between them was outstanding, and me and mom couldn't help but to laugh at the different emotions from the bag of flour and to adore the cool soundtrack (she's an 80's chick so it was inevitable)..

The journey was so fun to watch that i didn't want it to end, part of me had wished that Danielle and Clark could have ran away and started a new life together.. that would have been epic, but by the end of the film it was easy to admire the writers for thinking outside the box and reminding me why i love films like these so much ~