Factory Girl & Because I Said So

Factory Girl

Very interesting movie. Didn't get any good reviews or ratings but I wasn't expecting an Oscar performance.

SYNOPSIS as provided by Rotten Tomatoes

Best known for playing muse to Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick was a dazzling young socialite who found herself at the apex of the pop art scene in 1960s New York. In FACTORY GIRL, Sienna Miller is the enchanting, enigmatic Edie, offering a moving characterization of the extremely troubled model/actress. The film kicks off as Edie, the daughter of a well-to-do horse rancher, leaves art school and moves to Manhattan in the mid-'60s. Her friend Chuck Wein (Jimmy Fallon) introduces her to Andy Warhol (Guy Pearce), and Andy is immediately taken with the waifish, wealthy Edie. He welcomes her into his Factory, the silver aluminum-foil covered loft where an assortment of artists and oddballs assisted him with his projects. Edie quickly falls into the hard partying, drug-addled scene, starring in Andy's experimental films and becoming his constant companion. She becomes well-known for her unique style, and the fashion industry taps her as its very first "It" girl. Edie is flying high on Andy, speed, and stardom, when she happens to meet the Bob Dylan-esque "Folksinger" (Hayden Christensen). She falls in love with him, and in doing so, falls out of Andy's favor. Her drug addiction spirals out of control, her parents cut off her cash flow, and her very bright star seems to burn out almost as quickly as it rose.

As with most biopics, people are sure to quibble over the accuracy of FACTORY GIRL, and whether it offers fair portrayals of so many larger-than-life cultural icons. However, viewers are sure to agree that it makes a poignant statement about the pitfalls of fame. When Warhol tells Edie's mother that her daughter is going to be "super famous", Mrs. Sedgwick coldly responds: "And what exactly would be the value of that" Judging from the very tragic, short life of Edie, there wasn't much value in it at all.

Because I Said So

Cute chick flick. Kay picked this one. She really liked it and I thought it was a cute storyline. Reviews were deadly, it had a terrible rating on Rotten.

SYNOPSIS as provided by Rotten Tomatoes.

Diane Keaton lights up the screen as an overbearing, matchmaking single mother in this slightly offbeat romantic comedy from director Michael Lehmann (HEATHERS, THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS). The film is a lot of fun, with both Keaton and Mandy Moore delivering energetic performances as a loveable and pretty believable mother-daughter team. After seeing two of her three stunning daughters (Piper Perabo, Lauren Graham) happily marry, Daphne Wilder (Keaton) focuses all her worries on Milly (Moore), her youngest, most insecure, and unlucky-in-love offspring. Twentysomething Milly has got her career as a chef figured out, but is clueless when it comes to love, attracting a never-ending slew of married, cheating, and closeted men. Taking matters into her own hands, Daphne places a personal ad for her daughter, interviewing the suitors herself and settling on one particularly promising young man named Jason. Meanwhile, clueless to her mother's plans, Milly starts to fall for Johnny, a cute musician who in spite of treating Milly like gold, is hardly what Daphne has in mind for her daughter's future. As Milly becomes increasingly involved with both men, Daphne must face whether maybe she could still have her own romantic life at age 60, instead of just living vicariously through her grown daughters.

Unabashedly a chick flick, BECAUSE I SAID SO's intended audience is clearly female, but that's not to say it's all soft. The movie's girl talk includes frank discussions about sex and orgasms, demonstrating the unusually close relationships between the film's women and distinguishing the film from others in its genre. While following a vague romantic-comedy arc, the film also explores the bonds between women, focusing more on the mother-daughter relationship at the heart of the film than on any of the male love interests.