Review of Factory Girl (2014) by Natasha T — 12 Feb 2008

This movie focuses on the rise and fall of Edie Sedgwick. It's really the same old boy meets girl, boy loses girl, girl meets tragic end story, just with a more eccentric cast of characters than usual. Edie has a wealthy but troubled background, escapes to art school, and then decides to go to New York. We have no idea why, except that she wants to meet Andy Warhol. We have no idea how long it took, but she eventually attracts Andy's attention with her free-spirited dancing and movie star good looks. He invites her to his studio, called the Factory, to star in one of his mind blowingly dull and pretentious movies. She becomes famous, falls into the wrong crowd, and eventually dies of an OD. If you feel like I've spoiled the plot, you are too idiotic to watch this movie because they foretell her death in the DVD menu, in the trailer, probably on the poster.

The problem with this movie was that I didn't have a sense of who Edie was... either the "real" Edie or the persona. I did not feel like the movie captured either aspect of Edie well. I'd forgive the producers if they hadn't included a much more compelling and informative documentary on the DVD. So basically, the movie killed its interesting subject matter and you're left wanting more. Good performances though, especially by Guy Pearce.