Review: Factory Girl

A young beautiful socialite with loads of Daddy’s money to burn goes to New York in search of fame and recognition. On her journey, she meets and becomes dear friends with the ever-so famous Mr. Andy Warhol. Art, eccentric people and the very popular hang out joint, The Factory, all ensue.

Even though I never really followed the Pop Art movement myself (weird because I did study Art in school) or know much about it other than Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup stuff, this was a unique film experience for me, as well as an engaging character piece. In this film, we get to experience Warhol’s work and see his inspirations, and if Sienna Miller’s character (Edie Sedgwick) was anything like the portrayal of her in this film in real life, I can totally see how she was Warhol’s muse. She was full of life, easy on the eyes and when responding to people, always appeared to look like she gave a shit about what you were talking about. A rare quality that came off great on-screen!

Sienna Miller…my God, what a natural beauty! She is truly inspiring to look at and, damn…she can act! She plays Sedgwick and her character draws you in from beginning to end as you experience her transformation from becoming a “superstar” in the public eye to eventually turning to drugs which lead to her demise. Sienna just needs to do one big studio pic which will put her on the map to superstardom in real life!

Guy Pearce also does an amazing job of transforming himself into the Pop artist, Andy Warhol. Every movie in which I’ve seen Warhol being portrayed has always left me with a sense of unease about the guy and bottom line…let’s face it, the man was frickin’ weird! Yes, he did create interesting art, but the way he was shown in FACTORY GIRL, he came across as a cheap ass who just used everyone for his own financial purposes. Warhol is a borderline asshole and Pearce pulled him off to a T (pun intended?).

Hayden Christensen was this film’s biggest surprise for me. According to the IMDB, his character is just known as the “Musician”, but it was pretty clear to me that he was supposed to be Bob Dylan. I think there were some legal issues regarding the use of his name for the movie and therefore his name (Bob Dylan) was never actually said in the film. I will say this, I was super impressed with Christensen’s portrayal of the folk singer. Whatever memory I had of him as Anakin Skywalker, is officially peeled off right now, so he can move out of that shadow and move on to greener pastures. The boy can act!

All that said, I much preferred the first half of this movie over the second. The latter was a bit hard to follow because they started to bring in too many characters and it felt a little rushed. It seemed like we were supposed to know who all of the “new people” were, but it just made the film more confusing to follow for me.

In the end though, great characters, great acting and an interesting story, although not one for which you need to go out to the cinema right away. The film is also not for everyone. I’m just throwing it out there, but I think people who enjoy art or some form of art will appreciate this movie much more than the regular peeps who goes to the movies for a ruckus affair.

— by Tim
Goernert