Directed by Lori Petty. Starring: Bokeem Woodbine, Jennifer Lawrence, Sophia Barley, Selma Blair, Chloe Moretz, David Alan Grier. Synopsis: A biopic of a teenaged girl who is the oldest of three daughters, living with her alcoholic mother and her pimp in the 1970's midwest.Based on the life experiences of the director. Drama/Biographical
This is a very interesting film, basically the story of actor and first time director Lori Petty's (A Leauge Of Their Own) turbulent childhood in 1970s Iowa. The first thing you will notice that is interesting about this biopic is that, though the fact that it is the story of Lori Petty isn't really hidden in the promotion of the film, its easy to miss that fact as the character names are different. And, though those of us who are old enough to remember 1976 will certainly give props to the film for capturing the authentic "feel" of the mid 70's,right down to the excellent score. I must say that those of you who are not very familiar with Iowa-not to mention a few of us who've been there a time or two-will be surprised that it looked/looks like this.
The Lori Petty character, named Agnes in the film, is wonderfully played by Jennifer Lawrence. Agnes is the protagonist, narrator, and almost every scene is told from her point of view. We get an idea of her life right from the opening scene, sunrise in the wintry midwest, living in a home that is obviously worse for the recent wear with bottles and the refuse of a late night party strewn all over. Agnes, after a couple hits on that morning doobie, is up and about, telling an "overnight visitor" that he needs to get out right now, its a school day. After scooping a mouse out of the bathtub, we see her get up her two little sisters and...her mom.
Mom is played very well by Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions).Blair makes us both mad and empathetic with her character, a young, 30-something mother who is awash in booze and drugs right in the midst of her three daughters. But, that's not all. She's also turning tricks in the house (known around town, as you might guess, as the 'Poker House', due to all of the late night poker, fun, and, uhhh...frivolity taking place there) The relationship between Agnes and her mom is tense and inappropriate, but there is love there, and I think that was Petty's point, conscious or not.
In point of fact, we can easily see that Agnes is the actual mother figure to her two younger sisters (Chloe Moretz and Sophia Barley), despite the fact that Agnes is still a child herself, not even done with high school.
What about the father, you might wonder? Well, some brief back story is given to the situation with Agnes' real father, with strong implications of abuse. But, he's out of the picture. The father "figure" in the home, if you will, is the mother's pimp, Duval. (Bokeem Woodbine Edmond) .
There's more.
You see, if this setup is not already dysfunctional enough, we learn that Agnes is-ready or not-in love with Duval. Yep, believe it or not, and if you didn't know this story was true, you might have a hard buying that one, but there is no way anyone would make this up about themselves unless it were true.
I never want to play the spoiler (nor the fool, though I have played that role on multiple occassions), but I will say that those of you who are thinking that a romance between a high school girl and her mother's pimp can't possibly work out long term are absolutely....correct.
There's just a little too much to overcome, though Duval, in his own way, seems to reciprocate the feelings of amour. I said "in his own way" because Duval's first spoken words to Agnes in the film (after flipping her an Egg McMuffin fished out of his pocket on the table in front of her) are a soft, gentle "F*** y**" in response to her question "Are you breaking into people's houses again?"
Assuming that most, if not all of you, will not see Duval as the Romeo that Agnes does, but rather a Lothario, the question then becomes, does Duval have an ulterior motive and what does Mom think about all of this? Well, the answer to one of those questions should be obvious, the answer to the other not so much, but hopefully this review has been clear enough to let you understand this wasn't the Brady Bunch, Iowa style.
There is an unusual arc to this film because it is basically just a day in the life of Agnes ( Petty tells us on the director's commentary that though everything in the film is accurate, it didn't all take place in one day) without a huge ending or twist or resolution. There are several powerful scenes, including at least one most people, I predict, will find quite disturbing.
But, this is a moving film, not least because we have some real life knowledge, or can find out, what happened to 'Agnes' after her unusual daughter of a prostitute/caretaker of a whorehouse/care giver of her two sisters/main squeeze of a pimp/high school basketball star teen age years.
Lawrence was stunningly good, in my opinion, an Oscar worthy performance from a teen aged actress. And this role had to be played by a teen aged actress, in my view, part of the pathos of the story is the relative youth of the mother, and it just wouldn't have worked had Petty tapped-in true mainstream Hollywood form-a 24 year old actress, told us she was 14, then tried to have us believe she was the daughter of a 30 year old Blair. If you look up the real ages of Blair and Lawrence they are still a little too close in age, but visually and given the lifestyle of Blair's character, we can buy it.
The other child actors are wonderful as well, even the ones with minor roles as we get the picture of a time when children grew up too fast, which is interesting because those of us old enough to remember the time now or where pre-teens then (like your humble blogger) likely think of it, compared to today, as relatively innocent...if sartorially challenged.
Woodbine is excellent, as well. You hate him, as you should, but also you can grudgingly see how an impressionable teen ager could fall for him. He is the epitome of quite rage, polyester- shirt- wearing- cool. 70s style.And without a whole lot of dialogue for so central a character.
Also look for a couple of small scenes from an almost unrecognizable David Alan Grier, who also got a writing credit for this one. This is an excellent directorial debut for Petty, and I hope she does more. Some of the harder-to-impress among you might say, "Heck, its her story, she should be able to direct it well." Fair point, but I disagree. I think this might be among the hardest things she ever does.
I think this is one you should see.
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