Film Reviews

Factory Girl

• Rating:
• Director: George Hickenlooper
• Starring: Guy Pearce
• Details: US / 90mins (16).

Wannabe socialite Edie Sedgwick (Miller) leaves home for New York where she meets artist Andy Warhol (Pearce) and his Factory contingent. Warhol, overcome by her beauty, casts her in his films and Sedgwick is soon the toast of the underground art scene. When she meets a legendary folk singer (although never mentioned, but everyone knows it's Bob Dylan), Warhol, wrought with jealousy, casts her aside and leaves her to fend for herself on the streets of New York. Like The Velvet Underground (who get a brief mention here), Factory Girl is the flipside to the '60s, the dark underbelly of the peace, love and harmony generation. There is no character in the film that's likeable: Sedgwick is self-obsessed and too intent on being the queen of nothing to garner any sympathy from the audience, Warhol is cold, distant and facetious, while the Dylan character (played by Christensen) is a self-righteous know-it-all. These are all good things, but Factory Girl is let down by its lack of focus and just ambles along, hoping we're fascinated enough with the characters and the name checking to forgive the wafer-thin plot. Miller obviously threw herself into the role and proves she can do a lot more than just being a pretty face. Christensen is okay as the Dylan character but he should have spent more time watching Don't Look Back to hone the idiosyncrasies. Pearce is by far and away the best thing in the film. His Warhol is a mixed bag of insecurity, pretentiousness and the comical: "I know I should be happy for Mark that Norman Mailer punched him, but all I could think was, would Norman Mailer punch me?" A missed opportunity, overall.

Review by Gavin Burke