D.C. MOVIE GUYS

As anyone who has loved through the last several days trying to avoid all the media hubbub over the death of tabloid celebrity Anna Nicole Smith can tell you, the American people are fascinated with fame. As time has gone by, we seem to have lost our taste for rewarding folks with our curiosity over what they’ve accomplished and have zeroed in on celebrating famous folks merely for being famous. As the new film “Factory Girl” makes abundantly clear, there is a price for unearned fame-and that price can be awfully high.

Director George Hickenlooper and screenwriters Aaron Richard Golub and Captain Mauzner take us back to the New York art scene of the mid-1960’s, during the rise of Andy Warhol (Guy Pearce.) jJust on the edge of nass popularity, Warhol is desperate to find a way to gain interest and respect from the wealthy collectors who can make him a major player. A way into that world arrives when Warhol is introduced to Edie Sedgwick. The beautiful, fragile daughter of a well established New England family, Edie has wondered into the art world with hopes of channelling her skills into a career of her own.

Instead, she vecomes part of Warhol’s crowd of experimenters, hangers on and others who spend their time buzzing around him at his studio known as “The Factory.” She quickly becomes the star of Warhol’s bizarre experimental films. Her beauty and sexuality draw people and coverage to the shy, introverted Warhol while scandalizing the staid men and matrons of her social class. Her iinvolvement also brings in buyers for Warhol’s soup cans, Brillo boxes and other works.

As Edie and Andy’s relationship grows more complex, demons from her past begin to torture her. The emptiness of fame can’t fill the the places in Sedgwick’s heart Warhol can’t or won’t touch. A passionate affair with Bob Dylan (Hayden Christensen) offers Edie some peace, but threatens her link with Warhol. Soon, Edie finds herself trapped on all sides by betrayal and misjudgments, as her fame becomes a cruel joke.

Sienna Miller is simply superb as Edie. Her portrait of this poor little rich girl takes us down a familiar path, but she captures our interest and sympathy so completely with suck skill that we’re still devastated when things go wrong for her. She captures Edie’s charm, sensuality and self-destructive nature completely. This is as stunning a calling card for what will hopefully be a major career as I have seen in years. Pearce, long one of our most underrated actors, does the nearly impossible with Warhol. He makes this stange, detached man who appears to have all the warmth and self interest of a vampire, someone to both loathe and pity at the same time.

Directed with passion and intelligence and acted with great grace and skill, “Factory Girl” is more than just another sad story, it’s a compelling cautionary tale about the emptiness of fame without accomplishment. it is a great film.

MPAA RATING: R for profanity, drug content, nudity and intense sexual content
JOE’S RATING: FOUR STARS.

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