Dirty Girl (2010)

The movie starts with such stupidity and what seems like terrible acting and movie-making you're going to want to quit. Unless you're a high school kid looking for cheap thrills (and there ain't anything wrong with that--it's just a style thing). But hang in there. This movie gets better and better and better. By the end all the hilarity crashes down to a weepy finale--more convincing than it has any right to be after all the zany stuff prior.

It's mostly about two high school kids who don't fit in. They seem like opposites and we all know how fun opposite are in movie comedies. One is slutty girl Danielle who has a dysfunctional home life and who is wild partly because she's bored by school and is (it turns out) smarter than the cliché would have it. The other is an overweight kid Clarke who knows he's gay and who is afraid of coming out but everyone knows already anyway. He also has a dysfunctional family, and the movie eventually also clashes the two sets of parents (and accessory kin).

The plot moves fast and turns into a crisis and then a road trip. All good stuff. And it's filmed with an openminded low-budget freedom that makes it fun and doesn't always worry about verisimilitude. (The two leads are in a family planning class, for example, and are given a bag of flour they have to treat as their new baby. The bag has a face drawn on it in magic marker, and the face changes depending on what's going on around it. Her--it's a girl.)

But mostly it's the acting of Danielle (Juno Temple),and Clarke (Jeremy Dozier),that makes it all stick. Temple in particular is just oozing and exploding with energy and dramatic screen presence, whether being saucy or sassy, fun or sad. She takes over every scene and you want her to. Danielle drives a red 1965 Mustang convertible (of course--what else?). She knows what matters and who's a jerk and doesn't put up with crap. She's troubled, but all along you know she's basically right, and you end up totally on her side. And on Clarke's side, too, as he tries to make sense of his world now that someone accepts him without even blinking.

Eventually there is a deliberate Hollywood ending, complete with tears and spotlights on the stars. It's a farce, I suppose, or a silly over the top romp, and there are going to be people who never let it click. Humor is fickle. But once I was a good half hour in (and it took that long, unfortunately),but once I was, there was no going back. It's worth sticking it out. Very worth it.

Freshman writer & director Abe Sylvia has created the memorable as well as entertaining road picture "Dirty Girl," about a teenage high school student who hit's the highway in search of the father that she never knew. Danielle (Juno Temple) gets herself in trouble when she opens her foul mouth in class and lands feet first in the principal's office. The time is 1987 and Danielle is the kind of girl who doesn't get picked up, but who picks up. She has her three D system: discriminate (choose),designate (make herself look sexy) and dump (get rid of them after the dirty deed). Naturally, she is considered the school slut and her amorous activities get her send to do time with the misfits at the school. Sylvia deals with dozens of relevant themes: parenthood, masculinity, love, courage, and abortion. Mrs. Hatcher, who teaches the outcasts' class comes up with a typical school exercise about parenting. She assigns couples and furnishes each with a five pound bag of flour that they are suppose to treat like their offspring. Mrs. Hatcher pairs a reclusive young man, Clarke (Jeremy Dozier) to share the parental duties with Danielle. Of course, Danielle displays nothing but disgust for her gay partner. Nevertheless, as time progresses, she comes to see him as a person rather than a sexual deviation. Meanwhile, Clarke's evil father Joseph (Dwight Yoakam of "Sling Blade") suspects that his portly son may be gay and sends him to chiropractor for analysis. Actually, Joseph is right; Clarke is a flamer with cause. Initially, Danielle and Clarke are at odds until she decides to stand up for him. Unfortunately, Clarke's mother Peggy (Mary Steenburgen of "Time After Time") discovers the truth when she is making up Clarke's bed and finds gay pornographic pin-up pictures.

By this time, Danielle has grown disgusted with her own mom, Sue-Ann (Milla Jovovich of "The Fourth Kind"),particularly when she plans to marry Ray (William H. Macy of "Fargo") and live with him and his daughter and son. Danielle refuses to have anything to do with Ray and company and Ray takes away the car keys to her Mustang and they leave her to starve for the weekend. Clarke shows up with plastic and the two dine on Chinese food. Danielle shows Clarke a picture of the man that she suspects is her long lost father and they hit the road in Clarke's father car to drive for Fresno. Juno Temple is a knock-out! This is neither a bad scene nor a bad performance in this celebration of life, love, and diversity. Sylvia never wears out his welcome and "Dirty Girl" ripples with energy and charisma. The story about two misfits who find strength in each other and dare to take on the world is inspirational. Some of the subject matter may not be the stuff of traditional romances. No, Danielle doesn't make a straight guy out of Clarke. Sylvia blends comedy with tragedy adeptly. One of the funniest scenes finds out protagonists afoot in the middle of nowhere after Joseph has recovered his car. Danielle hears about a strippers dance contest and decides that it is the only way for Clarke and her to get money so they can resume their trip. The site of the contest is a Southern Comfort style bar with a rebel flag and rednecks galore. Danielle starts her act while Clarke hangs out back by the bar and watches her. About half way into her act, Danielle realizes that her seductive charms aren't having their usual impact. Earlier, the bartender had warned her that Jade has never lost a strip contest. Clarke discovers that Jade is really a bare-chested guy and he warns Danielle that they are in a gay bar. Clarke climbs on stage, performs a strip tease and wins the $50 that Danielle and he need to continue their journey. "Dirty Girl" isn't really a dirty movie despite its questionable subject matter. The soundtrack thrives with several chartbusters from the 198os. A must see for the indie crowd.

Alright, well this 2010 movie titled "Dirty Girl" is labeled as a comedy drama. So where exactly did the comedy disappear off to? I sure as death and taxes weren't amused, not even in the least.

I watched maybe 30 minutes of this ordeal from writer and director Abe Sylvia and then I just called it quits. Wow, this was a horribly boring movie, with nothing of any interest to catch my attention. I mean, the storyline was so mundane and pointless that it was just despicable, and the characters had about as much appeal as wet cardboard.

Sure, the movie did have some familiar and nice actors and actresses on the cast list, which includes the likes of Gary Grubbs, Milla Jovovich, Dwight Yoakam and Mary Steenburgen, but not even these performers were able to salvage this train wreck of a movie known as "Dirty Girl".

I have zero interest in returning to finish watching the rest of the movie at any point in the future, because there just was zero appeal for me in this movie.

My rating of "Dirty Girl" is a mere three out of ten stars, based on the cast list and the production value. But these aspects were hardly sufficient to make due for a lack of proper storyline and adequate characters.