Factory Girl Unrated DVD with Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, Hayden Christensen (Unrated) +Movie Reviews

A fantastic film for people who truly did their homework

Sarah Taylor | outside Phila | 06/21/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This film got an exceptional amount of poor reviews by people who had a faint idea of who Edie Sedgwick was and the effect she still has on people today. She was the underground, self-indulgent, addict version of Audrey Hepburn. Everyone wanted to be her. She couldn't help herself, but everyone wanted to help her until they realized the enormity of that task. Edie was a poor little rich girl, yes, but she was raised to be that way. She was someone who was heavily medicated from a young age, someone who was taught to go to others for your problems. She wanted to escape, but the foundation of who she was was never solid enough for her to make it on her own, hence her inability to be completely independent. Enter Andy Warhol, the sychophant who relished in her beauty, charm, and complete lack of self-awareness. She was everything he wasn't, and vice versa. Once Warhol had capitalized on her and milked her dry, he left her wanting, so she found other means. Therewithin is her demise.

Knowing Sedgwick, and especially the nuances of this film, makes you look at it in a different light. The too-fast pace marked by subtleties such as "is the salmon fresh?". If you don't know that era, those people, the Warholian group, you'll dislike this film. Simply because you won't appreciate how much went into developing the characters. Any press will show you that Sienna worked on the role well over a year, Guy lost loads of weight, and Miller had to master a voice that crept away from the person who possessed it in a very short time. Not an easy task.

It's a fantastic film. If nothing else, appreciate the artistry of it."

The tragic decline of a bright young 'Factory Girl'

Schtinky | California | 08/05/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Admittedly, this movie is my first foray into the interesting life story of Edie Sedgwick, one of Andy Warhol's brightest stars and hanger-on's in Warhol's studio, which became known as 'The Factory'. It's definitely a great place to start to peak your interest in the story of Andy and Edie, and the tragedy of Edie's life.

Edie was a blue-blood from an important family, an artist who wanted to explore the big city of New York. She meets Andy Warhol and the two become fast friends. Andy sees in Edie something he can use, and stars Edie is several of his underground movies. The two of them became a sensation, and Edie was suddenly a sweetheart of the New York art scene. Exposure to the wild and willing deviance of Warhol's Factory soon led to Edie's use of drugs. Her trust fund was running low. Then Edie meets Billy Quinn (in real life it was Bob Dylan).

Warhol disapproved of Edie's relationship with Quinn (Dylan) and began to shun her. Edie was devastated by the estrangement of Warhol, her best friend, so she chose Warhol over Quinn, only to discover that Warhol had already written her off as yesterday's news. Edie spiraled into her drug addiction, her trust fund ran out, and her relationship with her rigid parents was already strained past the breaking point. She had no where to go and no one to turn to. Except drugs.

'Factory Girl' is a well-done film. Sienna Miller as Edie was perky and perfect for the role. Hayden Christianson was above his usual performances as Billy Quinn. Guy Pearce was stunningly perfect as Andy Warhol, and watch for SNL's Jimmy Fallon as Edie's friend Chuck Wein. The acting was excellent, the atmosphere captured the 60's, and the photography added that tiny bit of craziness that inundated the era. The movie woke my interest in the Factory, and I was recommended two books, "Edie: American Girl" by Jean Stein and "Factory Made: Warhol And The Sixties" by Steven Watson.

If this subject fascinates you at all, 'Factory Girl' is a great place to start. I recommend watching this film. Enjoy!

"

Devoured and spit out by The Factory

KerrLines | Baltimore,MD | 02/20/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"FACTORY GIRL is a portrait of Edie Sedgwick(an outstanding performance by Sienna Miller),born into a well-to-do

back East" family,whose restless ambition and need to be loved brings her to the avant-garde art scene of 1960's New York.She is free,bubbly,vivacious and most of all,a true innocent who gets caught up in the free love,sex,drugs and music of the Cultural-Anti-Establishment Revolution.Her closest "confidantes" are the artists of Andy Warhol's FACTORY,Andy Warhol himself (played by a practically unrecognizable Guy Pearce who plays his role with such creepy coolness and cruelty),and the music and fashion icons of the time.What at first is fun becomes dark and deadly as we watch Edie literally devoured by it all.These people are heartless and will discard you like yesterdays leftovers!Those who so shallowly pretend to be her closest friends stand by numbly (or drugged) as they watch her decent into oblivion which is horrific and almost painfully unwatchable.This is not a pleasant film to watch,but it is so well crafted and acted that one viewing makes it unforgetable.Reminiscent of films such as GIA and JUDY GARLAND:ME AND MY SHADOWS, the outcome is sadly predictable for these once bright stars."

Edie Lite

Scott Coblio | West Hollywood, CA United States | 07/17/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Personally, I'm glad the movie focuses only on 1965-1966, when Edie rose and fell with equal velocity. The script is flawed, but not fatally. Sienna Miller manages to evoke Edie--her intelligence, her smoky voice and aristocratic origins, her wry pixie humor. What the film doesn't have time to explore is her complexity. I could have done without the Bob Dylan character--it's corny, as well as inaccurate-- in real life Dylan had little to do with her rise or fall. It was Bob Neuworth, Dylan's sidekick, that transfixed her. In place of the Dylan subplot, I would rather have seen more solo Edie hitting the party circuit, making films, doing fashion spreads, conquering the media Guerilla style. That would have given Sienna Miller a chance to show more of Edie's strength and pizazz.

In "Factory Girl", Edie's turnabout from happy Queen of Warhol's Factory to ousted junkie is a little too sudden. One or two more transition scenes would have helped. The film depicts Edie's downfall as a result of failed romance & her oust from the Warhol set, but this appears to be innacurate. From what I have read, her ruin was really built into her psychological makeup, it seems. All the demons of her childhood and resulting lack of self esteem (combined-as so often in these "charismatic trainwreck" types--with a huge ego), seem to have created a timebomb, inevitably counting backwards to zero. But she was a beautiful and compelling timebomb, a butterfly captured--temporarily--and studied through Warhol's lens. Andy got the exclusive on her--for she fell apart almost immediately after she stopped appearing in his movies.

Aside from some fashion modelling and the movie "Ciao! Manhattan"--a painful attempt to either resurrect her or capture and exploit her death throes (for she really was dying on film here, spiritually if not physically--and was dead of an overdose only months after filming wrapped), Edie remains otherwise undocumented on celluloid-- flickering through the rest of time in Warhol's unseen vaults. One wonders why the Warhol Estate doesn't release them now that "Factory Girl" is becoming a sleeper hit on DVD. Boxset, anyone?

More than being a model or a movie star though, Edie's real gift seems to have been more of a live phenomenon--as is evidenced by the countless testimonials of those she bewitched or enchanted in person. Yes, she was beautiful (check out the Girl on Fire book if you are in any doubt of her considerable physical charm). She was also intelligent--something that might surprise the uninformed skeptic. And inspite of her exasperating insistence on self-destruction, she was magical. And she made those she touched feel magical too. In a world that seems to be turning more apocalyptic each day, being society's Tinkerbell just may be a more significant achievement than being a good actress. I give props to the film makers for evoking some of Edie's magic then, in this imperfect but interesting and rewatchable study."

Destined to be a cult classic

Andrew Olivo | Oregon, United States | 07/20/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This year, 2007, being the twentieth anniversary of Andy Warhol's death, there seems to be a resurgence of interest in the late pop artist. FACTORY GIRL, about Andy Warhol's muse Edie Sedgwick (referred to, perhaps unfairly, by some as the Paris Hilton of the 1960s) seems to be the latest example of the resurgence of interest.

My own interest in Andy Warhol was piqued in the 1980s when my sister, an actress living in the village at the time, told me about the times she saw Warhol standing on the street corner at night and staring vacantly into space. Over the years, I have come across references to him here and there. But it wasn't until the recent PBS American Masters documentary that I really got some insight into who he was. Since then, Andy Warhol has become something of an obsession for me. I have since read several books about him, which I plan to review on Amazon at some point.

So, suffice it to say that I come to this movie with at least a bit of knowledge on the topic.

What's most stunning about FACTORY GIRL is that Sienna Miller looks a great deal like Edie Sedgwick. In some of the scenes, particularly the recreations of the various Warhol movies she starred in, I had to do a double-take. I thought maybe they were using actual historical footage. Beyond that, Sienna Miller herself is a stunning beauty and did a stunning job with the material she was given.

And that brings us to the material. It leaves something to be desired. From what I've read, Edie was an extraordinarily complex person, as was Andy Warhol himself. The two were sort of counterparts for one another. They had a multi-leveled relationship. FACTORY GIRL really gives no indication of the depth of character that both possessed nor the complexity of their relationship. Sienna Miller brings Edie to life, but the screenplay and editing really doesn't allow the audience to get to know Edie as a person. Guy Pearce has his moments, but for the most part he seems to play Andy Warhol as a caricature rather than a character, sort of an impersonation. Jared Harris offered a much better reading in I SHOT ANDY WARHOL. And I'm sorry to say that Hayden Christensen's take on Bob Dylan is almost B-level acting. I just don't buy him as a rebellious rock star.

Overall, the movie doesn't seem like a coherent movie in and of itself. It seems like conceptual pieces, disjointed scenes haphazardly strung together, with no continuity holding them in place. It's a real shame because this movie could've been great. The first 20 minutes offer real promise. Sienna Miller makes it clear that she's a real talent. She is first-rate in this movie. The rest of the movie does not stand up to her performance. Ironically, like Edie Sedgwick herself, Sienna deserved better.

In the PBS American Masters documentary about Andy Warhol, an art critic says that Andy's pop art paintings of advertisements upset the art world. They were disconcerting because, unlike abstract impressionism, Warhol's paintings have a flatness with no brush strokes evident, the effect being that the paintings throw you back on the surface and offer no place for your spiritual eye to penetrate the work. The same could be said for FACTORY GIRL. Like Warhol's paintings, and despite Sienna Miller's laudable attempts, this movie throws you back on the surface and allows no place for your spiritual eye to penetrate. For a tremendously complicated girl with such a tragic life, the viewer is left with only a memory of how beautiful she was. All surface.

However, the surface is beautiful enough to, in my opinion, guarantee that this movie will become a cult classic. Despite this three-star review, I intend to buy myself a copy. Sienna Miller's performance, and the visual recreations of the Factory, are good enough to warrant repeated viewings."

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	Factory Girl Unrated Actors: Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, Hayden Christensen, Jimmy Fallon, Jack Huston Director: George Hickenlooper Genres: Drama UR 2007 1hr 30min (Drama) "Factory Girl" tells the story of the rise and fall of the original "IT GIRL" Edie Sedgwick. When Edie meets famed artist Andy Warhol, she is thrust into a life of glamour, parties and ultimately?tragedy.
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