It’s unfortunate that there’s been so much press surrounding Sienna Miller in recent months. Press and publicity tends to overshadow films – and no film deserves to stand on its own more than “Factory Girl.”
“Factory Girl,” the biopic of 1960s “It Girl” Edie Sedgwick, is tragic, shocking and charming all at the same time.
To provide some background, Sedgwick was not much different from many SMU students. Her family was “old money.” She was born and raised in California. She loved horses. It wasn’t until she met pop artist Andy Warhol and began shooting movies at his Factory in 1965 that events were set in motion. Events that would end with Sedgwick overdosing on drugs before the age of 30.
“Factory Girl” captures every color and nuance of Sedgwick’s rise and fall. Played with realism and emotion by Sienna Miller (“Casanova”), the Edie of the film is shown to us in the beginning as a young art student in a sweater set who is anxious to move to New York. In the end she’s transformed into a hungry-for-money drug addict. The contrast is startling. Miller does a commendable job, capturing the na’veté and ambition of pre-Warhol Edie in addition to the desperation and severe depression of post-Warhol Edie. Miller carries the film and does so with style.
Guy Pierce (Memento, The Count of Monte Cristo) plays Andy Warhol with just as much honesty. But where we see the change in Edie, Pierce emphasizes the unchanging cold nature of Warhol throughout the film. Pierce essentially plays Warhol as an insecure, insensitive prick. Warhol is infatuated with Sedgwick, idolizes her for one chaotic year, and then shuns her at the first sign of the possibility that Edie might adore someone else.
Pierce’s portrayal of Warhol is shameless, merciless and surreal, while his physical appearance as Warhol is a miracle of movie makeup from every strand of white hair down to every last blotch, capturing a true unattractiveness about the man who observed people without really being one of them.
Hayden Christensen also gives an impressive performance as the folk singer whom Sedgwick falls in love with. His name isn’t mentioned in the film, but anyone who knows Sedgwick’s story and isn’t blind when they look up at the screen knows it’s Bob Dylan.
(Dylan threatened to file suit against the Weinstein Company during the film’s production, stating that the movie portrays him as responsible for Sedgwick’s death. Though the film doesn’t present the story that way, the producers agreed to change the Dylan character’s name.)
Christensen nails the part, speaking his lines in a recognizably Dylan-like drawl. His presence in Sedgwick’s life is presented as positive, as Christensen’s unnamed musician bashes Warhol and embraces Sedgwick. The much-discussed sex scene, regardless of how it was filmed or what the actors were actually doing when they filmed it, is what it should be: dreamy and steamy. Miller and Christensen have a tensely real chemistry together that’ll make your heart break when their characters part ways.
An impressive collection of supporting cast members also shine in the film. Jimmy Fallon, Mena Suvari, Shawn Hatosy and Edward Herrmann all stretch their legs in this film. While the film is not an ensemble piece, the supporting cast is solid enough to give audiences plenty of performances to applaud.
Director George Hickenlooper obviously did his research (which is evident in the documentary interviews that play during the closing credits), and it shows. “Factory Girl” is a vibrant and garish look at the world of underground cinema and pop art in the 1960s. The art direction in the movie is more than impressive. Not only is the film interesting to watch, it’s interesting just to look at as well.
While its subject matter is often disturbing and harrowing, thanks to the performances of its actors and the artistic vision of the filmmakers, “Factory Girl” is a triumph among biopics.
