Review: ‘Factory Girl’
By Phil Villarreal, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson
Feb. 15–The factory that made her also spit her out.
“Factory Girl” is a breathless look at the brief life of Edie Sedgwick (1943-1971), an heiress who modeled and acted, achieved headlines due to her close relationships with Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan. The drugs-riddled, cutting-edge arts scene that lifted her to fame also engulfed her. Eventually she wore out her friendships, spent all her money and died of a drug overdose.
Sienna Miller, revealing a depth and presence she’s never hinted at before, inhabits Sedgwick with raw exuberance. She plays Sedgwick as a magnetic presence who’s at once a force of nature and shy, unassuming victim. Self-absorbed and aloof, Sedgwick knows exactly what she’s doing and has no idea what she’s gotten herself into. She’ll burn bright and flame out — in narration she says she never expected to live past 30.
Sedgwick seems to have no other ambition than to live each day to the fullest, regardless of the costs of tomorrow. She’s half oblivious to the awestruck lust she sparks in nearly every man she meets, namely the drooling, tortured Warhol (Guy Pearce), who thinks nothing of torching the establishment with his bold art and films but doesn’t have the guts to tell Edie he’s got a crush on her.
Instead, Warhol lionizes Sedgwick, elevating her to underground stardom with all his might, lifting her to a pedestal so high he can no longer touch her, but is forced to sit back and regard her as a voyeur would. He’s crushed when Dylan brashly sweeps her away. Warhol’s airy cockiness dwindles when confronted with Dylan’s blunt masculinity. Hayden Christensen plays Billy Quinn, the fictionalized stand-in for Dylan.
The film’s sharpest tension comes when Sedgwick, ever the idealist, deigns to unite her platonic and romantic loves for a joint project. Thus brings a standoff between two artistic geniuses with nothing but contempt for each other. It tingles like a high-noon shootout from an old Western.
Such moments of engrossing conflict are all too rare in “Factory Girl,” which tends to be as shallow and free-spirited as its subject. At least it’s also as fun.
“Factory Girl” (3 stars out of 4) — R for pervasive drug use, strong sexual content, nudity and language. Starring Sienna Miller. George Hickenlooper directs. 87 minutes. Playing at El Con.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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