Girl

USA 1998

Reviewed by Liese Spencer

Synopsis

Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.

The only child of elderly, wealthy parents, 18-year-old 'A' student Andrea Marr is a senior in a suburban Portland, Oregon, high school and keen to lose her virginity. While slumming downtown Andrea spots local-band leader Todd Sparrow and falls in love. At home, Andrea learns she's been accepted into Brown University. At school Andrea avoids her best friend Darcy and begins to hang out with cool chick Cybil who's in a band with Richard and Greg. Andrea starts going to gigs with them and becomes Sparrow's devoted groupie. Cybil is offered a record deal without Richard and Greg, so she drops out of school.

After losing her virginity to handsome nerd Kevin, Andrea finally begins dating Sparrow but he leaves to go on tour. On Graduation Day Andrea learns Greg has committed suicide. At a party, Andrea discovers Darcy is a bulimic. They reaffirm their friendship. Richard beats up the class bully and dances with Darcy. Cybil arrives in tears, believing Greg's suicide was her fault. Andrea comforts her and they kiss. On her way home, Andrea bumps into Todd. He takes her to his flat and pours out his soul to her, but can't get an erection. Andrea leaves. Driving her car to Brown she decides she has learned from her groupie experience but has now become someone who earns other people's admiration.

Review

In last year's Lolita Dominique Swain played the pubescent object of Jeremy Irons' lecherous attentions. As the wide-eyed groupie Andrea in Jonathan Kahn's film Girl, she's an 18-year-old girl who pursues her own libidinous dream in the shape of local rock-god Todd Sparrow. Swooning, gasping like a goldfish and getting to grips with hip slang ("That was the shit," Swain's trendy friend Rebecca assures her, "Yeah, that was shit," she replies), Swain shows a natural talent for comedy as she skips through a teenage minefield of bad sex, first love and sex advice from her parents (illustrated with a banana and condom). But even her sweet, sassy performance can't rescue this misconceived teen movie. Opening with a confidential voiceover by Swain, Girl's diary of a crush certainly captures the flavour of solipsistic teenage soul-searching but it's hard to know who'd want to spend two hours watching its bathetic stream of jejune self-consciousness. Young audiences will miss the self-referential wit of Kevin Williamson's creations (such as the Scream franchise), while older audiences are unlikely to be tempted by its routine rites of passage.

Despite having a staggering 13 producers credited to the project, Girl can't seem to make up its mind what kind of movie it wants to be. Instead, like the unpopular kid at school, Girl frantically copies the other hipper, funnier, more successful teen movies in its class. By setting itself against Portland's alternative music scene and focusing on a sweet young thing's devotion to an egocentric rock god (although, on the evidence here, Sparrow is more Richard Clayderman than Kurt Cobain), it invites unflattering comparisons with Singles. By taking a bubblegum look at high school traumas with a sassy, popular-girl narrator it clones Clueless. Never quite finding its own identity, Girl resembles nothing so much as an overlong pilot for a television series such as Williamson's Dawson's Creek, even down to those cute incidental guitar solos to tell you when a scene ends.

Despite such helpful musical punctuation, the direction, script and performances often seem to be pulling against each other, giving Girl a frustratingly uneven tone. Caught between sincerity and satire, it is at its best when sending up its earnest, lovestruck protagonist. Rapturously describing dating Sparrow, Andrea tells us how he "wined her and dined me," while all we see is a bonking montage, at one point showing Andrea and Todd emerging from a portaloo. "He wasn't just a musician, he was an artist and his whole world was one big canvas," sighs Andrea later, as she gazes down at Todd's rank bedding encrusted with junk food cartons.

Such slender laughs are swept away, however, in the film's final ten minutes, when the film tries to cram in every conceivable teen problem before delivering its self-congratulatory conclusion. Wheeling out supporting characters who have been largely ignored for the rest of the movie, Kahn races through teenage pregnancy, lesbianism, suicide, bulimia and bullying. Introduced from nowhere and unattached to either plot or character, these stray 'issues' are often dispatched with a single line. As Cybil and Andrea kiss, Andrea's cursory voiceover tells us that, "although I knew I wasn't a lesbian, Cybil knew she was." Sexuality: tick. When Andrea's thinly sketched friend Greg kills himself, nobody really seems to notice and since the characters don't care, it's hard for us to either. The suicide note he leaves behind reads simply "Reality." Girl has both too much reality and not enough.

Credits

Producers
Jeff Most
Chris Hanley
Brad Wyman
Screenplay
David E. Tolchinsky
Based on the novel by
Blake Nelson
Director of Photography
Tami Reiker
Editor
Gillian Hutshing
Production Designer
Johnna Butler
Music
Michael Tavera
©The Kusner-Locke Company
Production Companies
The Kusner-Locke Company presents an HSX films, Muse/Jeff Most/Brad Wyman production
Executive Producers
Michael Burns
Peter Locke
Donald Kushner
Co-executive Producers
Phil Mittleman
Marc Butan
Co-producers
Michael Alan Kahn
John Saviano
Mary Vernieu
Associate Producers
David E. Tolchinsky
Anne McCarthy
Production Executive
Harlan Freedman
Production Supervisor
Hank Chilton
Production Co-ordinator
Victoria Rhoades
Unit Production Manager
Betsy Mackey
Location Manager
Jack Robinson
Executive in Charge of Post-production
Bob Wenokur
Post-production Supervisor
Teresa Cintron
Assistant Directors
Jean Louis Duroc
Caroline Stephenson
Laura Hoffman
Script Supervisor
Sharon Cingle
Casting
Mary Vernieu
Anne McCarthy
Associate:
Carrie Campbell
Camera Operator
Chris George
Steadicam Operator
Chris George
Special Effects Supervisor
Jean Louis Duroc
Art Directors
Floyd Albee
Kathy Orlando
Set Decorator
Kathy Orlando
Scenic Artist
Alexis Ross
Costume Designer
Magda Lavandez-Berliner
Wardrobe Supervisor
True Cross
Key Make-up
Julie Pearce
Hair Designer
André Blaise
Key Hair
Julie Woods
Additional Hair/Make-up
Randy S. Westgate
Debra L. Ferullo
Main Title Sequence Design
Dan Perri
Titles/Opticals
CFI Opticals
Score Performers
Synthezisers:
Michael Tavera
Guitar/Mandolin:
Nick Nolan
The Jon Kahn Band
Music/Lyrics:
Jon Kahn
Guitar:
John Thomas
Bass:
Michael Grate
Organ:
Mike Farrell
Crooked Tom
Vocals/Lead Guitar:
Ty Crook
Vocals/Acoustic Guitar:
Lauri Crook
Bass:
Greg Thomas
Drums:
Jeff Thomas
Music Supervisors
Jeff Most
Shopan Entesari
Dave Jordan
Music Co-ordinator
Lisa Parker
Music Editor
John Bogosian
Score Engineer
Scott Cochran
Music Consultant
Cherry Lane Productions
Soundtrack
"I Will Arrive" by Melissa Ferrick, Rob Laufer, performed by Melissa Ferrick; "History's Burning", "Farewell" by/performed by The Smooths; "Into the Cloud Forest" by Atom Smith, Brad Cooper, performed by Brain Garden; "Forget the World" by A. Rachtshaid, R. Zahaiser, L. Castle, performed by The Hippos; "I Can't Catch You", "We Have Forgotten" by Matt Slocum, performed by Sixpence None the Richer; "Ever So So" by Todd Miller & Operator, performed by Operator; "Declan (Man of Mystery)" by Michael McCormack & The Mitcheners, performed by The Mitcheners; "Which Way" by Mark Goodman, performed by Magnet; "She's So Cool", "One More Time" by Jeffries Fan Club & Mike Oziorgot, performed by Jeffries Fan Club; "Stealing Away" by Foamilaye, Paul Coats, Camas Celli, performed by Foamilaye; "The Way That I Feel" by Tomas Costanza, performed by Flo 13; "I Walk the Mole" by David Bassett, Walter Salas-Humara, performed by The Moles; "Solid" by Jordan Cohen, Michael Cummings, Adam Williams, Dorian Heartsong, Allan Pahanish Jr, performed by Powerman 5000; "Never (aka Cybil's Song)" by Jonathan Kahn, Mike Farrell, performed by Crooked Tom; "Blood Brothers" by Jonathan Kahn, performed by Mike Parnell; "Beast in the Jungle", "One Step Forward", "Girl", "Refuge", "Look My Way" by Jonathan Kahn, performed by The Jon Kahn Band; "L.I.N.U.S." by Eric King, Tom Delfosse, John Fortin, performed by JFT; "Who's Got the Yea-Yo" by Joe Kelly, performed by The BeerNuts; "Strange" by Lauri Crook, Wayne (Ty) Crook, Jeff Thomas, performed by Crooked Tom; "Rations", "Stand in Line" by Wayne (Ty) Crook, performed by Crooked Tom; "Evil Ways" by Lauri Crook, Jeff Thomas, Greg Thomas, performed by Crooked Tom
Sound Mixer
Peter Bentley
Post Audio Co-ordinators
Galen Walker
Ricky Delena
Re-recording Mixers
Mark Rozett
Jeremy Hoenack
George Groves
Supervising Sound Editors
Rod O'Brien
Douglas Salkin
Jussi Tegelman
Dialogue Editors
Keith Burhans
Erik Blank
Jussi Tegelman
Sound Effects Editors
John Bogosian
John Kohlbrenner
Eriq P. Jaffe
ADR
Supervisor:
Heather Leavitt
Recordist:
Doug Andorka
Editors:
Keith Burhans
Erik Blank
Jussi Tegelman
Foley
Artist:
Vincent Guisetti
Stunt Co-ordinator
Jean Louis Duroc
Cast
Dominique Swain
Andrea Marr
Sean Patrick Flanery
Todd Sparrow
Summer Phoenix
Rebecca Farnhurst
Tara Reid
Cybil
Selma Blair
Darcy
Channon Roe
Kevin
Portia Di Rossi
Carla
Rosemary Forsyth
mother
James Karen
father
Christopher Kennedy Masterson
Richard
David Moscow
Greg
Victor Togunde
Jonathan
Jay R. Ferguson
Parker Blackman
Robert Bower
Buzz Mitchell
John Philbin
Mr Jones
Bodhi Elfman
Derek
Adam Scott
Scott
Chris Wiehl
Mark
Kate Towne
Marjorie
Richard Hillman
Luke
Kathleen Wilhoite
the hip salesgirl
Clea Duvall
Gillian
Jeff Rosenthal
the stylist
York Shakelton
Jesse Roach
skateboarders
Barris Jahn
the salesman
Deborah Offner
Cybil's mom
Tom Wilson
the ticket seller
Kimberly Pullis
the Floe's girl
Jennifer Paz
Paige Moss
barn girls
Jeff Downey
Cybil's acoustic guitarist
Zander
Cybil's electric guitarist
Mike Parnell
Cybil's bassist
Paul Black
Cybil's drummer
Benny Tjandra
Todd's drummer
Brian Heinberg
Todd's bassist
Joe Taylor
Todd's keyboardist
Boris Worister
Todd's acoustic guitarist
Powerman 5000
Michael David Cummings
Allan Pahanish Jr
Dorian Heartsong
Adam Jeremy Williams
Jordan Cohen
themselves
Ty Crook
vocals for Todd Sparrow
Lauri Crook
vocals for Cybil
The Jon Kahn Band
songs for the Color Green
Crooked Tom
songs for the Bad Hands
Crooked Tom
songs for Thrift Store Apocalypse
Jacky Jack
the under the bridge dog
Certificate
tbc
Distributor
Feature Film Company
tbc feet
tbc minutes
Ultra-Stereo
Colour by
Fotokem
Last Updated: 20 Dec 2011