Through Andy Warhol's revolving door of hangers-on during the psychedelic 60s, only one person ever truly fascinated him: Edie Sedgwick, the "Factory Girl."
Miller Tries to Make Sedgwick Likeable
Sienna Miller, in the title role, bares her body and soul in an attempt to make Sedgwick likeable. She is a beautiful young art student from a privileged background who moves to New York in pursuit of the glamorous party life depicted by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a movie that Sedgwick has never actually seen. She soon joins other drug addicts and posers at Warhol's New York City "Factory," a crowded loft where he produced painting and films.
After meeting Warhol (Guy Pearce), who is platonically smitten with her, she also gets introduced to an intellectual folk singer loosely based on Bob Dylan (Hayden Christensen) who also finds her intriguing. The two men engage in a nasty power struggle over her that literally tears Sedgwick apart. She squanders her father’s millions on illegal drugs and provocative clothes, and dissolves her natural beauty into a vulgar caricature with smeared makeup, ratty hair, and bruised skin from needle injections.
Her friends, family, business associates, and caretakers ignore the warnings of a woman being consumed by the life – fame, glamour, fast times, and superstar status – she so desperately craves. Beneath those big black eyelashes lie vacant eyes devoid of any depth of feeling or ability to see beyond her next appearance as “Queen of the Underground Cinema” in a Warhol film in which she smokes cigarettes, kisses men, and pouts in the name of art.
Hickenlooper’s Tragic Biopic
In Factory Girl, director George Hickenlooper constructs this tragic biopic tale of excess and deficiency with vivid color scenes interspersed with grainy black-and-white footage in the style of Warhol’s “pornographic” underground films, and distorted images designed to duplicate Sedgwick’s drug-induced perception. Woven throughout the movie are scenes of Sedgwick confessing to her therapist, and Warhol confessing to his priest. Similarly, the story itself is a mix of documentary, docudrama, and fiction that jumps back and forth through time, space, and reality. And be warned: This unrated DVD version of the film has graphic sex, graphic drug use, and even graphic graphics.
Like Miller, Pearce and Christensen successfully bring their characters to life, but while the actors are credible enough, there’s not much to like about these two men either – both of whom abandon Sedgwick when she’s most vulnerable. Jimmy Fallon turns in a fine performance as her can’t-wait-to-stab-you-in-the-back friend who accompanies her to New York, also in pursuit of perpetual parties and fame-by-association.
Factory Girl DVD Bonus Features
As the theatrical release received mixed reviews (with many of them downright hostile), Hickenlooper was wise to include so many extra goodies on the DVD. Bonus features include an audio commentary with the director, brief deleted scene, a “making of” featurette, a nearly half-hour feature on the real Edie Sedgwick, Sienna Miller’s cast audition, Guy Pearce Video Diaries, theatrical trailer, and previews for other movies from The Weinstein Company.
- Factory Girl (Unrated Director’s Cut)
- Director: George Hickenlooper
- Running time: 99 minutes
- Rating: Unrated
For more information about dramatic films on DVD, read reviews of The Lives of Others and Half Nelson.
