Family, family, family. Family: a dad short -- Danielle, the joyous school whore and proud of it, dreams of finding out who who father is. When her mom plans to marry a Mormon with 2 kids (a groping son and daughter who looks forward to sleeping in Danielle's room), she desperately needs to find her dad and enlarge her options. Family: a violent, intolerant dad. Clark is an overweight loser who hides deep inside his hoody hoping his classmates will overlook him. His deepest secret is that he's gay, a fact his father keeps trying to beat out of him, while mom passively winces. Family: school assignment-- Danielle and Clark are assigned as parents to a 5 lb. package of flour, their baby, to protect and write about in a log.
Forced into this union, Danielle and Clark form an unlikely friendship and alliance as they hit the road to find Danielle's dad and evade Clark's dad's wrath. To add to the situation, it's 1987 in Normal, Oklahoma; at least the music on the car radio, truck stop bars, Clark's earphones, and in the air is a place of aural solace and so much better than I remembered.
Of course, their time together, the people they meet, the misadventures they get into, the revelations they make are exciting, entertaining and even hit home though the filmic situations tend to be a bit overblown, overacted and touching upon the corny. Tending towards a slut/gay fairytale more than actual trials of two angst-ridden outsider teens, there's lots of fun to be had in this road trip half way across America.
Dirty Girl
Director / Writer: Abe Sylvia
Cast: Juno Temple, Jeremy Dozier, Milla Jovovich, William H. Macy, Mary Steenburgen, Tim McGraw, Dwight Yoakam
Time: 99 min.
Rating: R
Opening October 7 at the Metreon in San Francisco.
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