Review: Dirty Girl (2011)

17, October 2011Reviews

Dirty Girl takes place in 1987 Oaklahoma, but it looks like the writer/director Abe Sylvia is still clinging on to the 70’s in Danielle (Juno Temple)’s colorful wardrobe. She accurately depicts a maturing woman who thinks getting her way with men is the best way to live. On a quest for destruction with adorably awkward sexual advances, look out for her “three D’s” to life. Exiled to join the remedial class, Danielle’s whorish reign comes to a quick end and joins the team of outcasts. “Nobody likes a dirty girl.”

Jeremy Dozier plays an extremely awkward special needs kid named Clarke who battles his sexual identity with his homophobic father. It’s his lucky day when he gets paired with the notorious Danielle for a project on parenthood. With nothing left to lose, Clarke takes off in his dad’s corvette and joins Danielle on journey across country to California. “You are running toward something, I’m just running away.” They name their sack of flour daughter ‘Joan’ after Joan Jett and take her along for the ride. The rest of the story narrates through Joan in Danielle’s voice as Mommy and Daddy go from a couple forced into parenthood from uncontrollable powers to making an impenetrable bond out of their own misfortunes.

Ironically enough, Milla Jovovich plays a timid mother that tries to fix her mistakes and regrets by marrying a Norman. Guess we lost her back-bone under all that hairspray. However, Mary Steenburgen is surprisingly electric in her own journey through parenthood as Clarke’s mother Peggy. Expect a jaw-dropping turn of events after she lets out a window-shattering scream at the town prison. It’s time the girls grab this situation by the horns and get their kids back.

Temple’s crude, matter-of-fact sarcasm and Dozier’s relentless passive aggressive nature create a charming misfit couple that feed off one other’s quirky personality. From a sensational imitation of Fame at a gay strip club to Clarke’s cherry popping night with a hitch-hiker, the fabulous duo escape their miserable lives to Bow Wow Wow and Teena Marie. The fierce Glee duo, Rachel (Lea Michele) and Kurt (Chris Coifer) face some serious competition with Temple and Dozier’s waterworks during their performance of Melissa Manchester’s “Don’t Cry Outloud” at the school talent show.

72/100 - Temple and Dozier’s passionate journey takes you on a trip down memory lane to those simple days of misunderstood and not-so-complicated adolescence.