Dirty Girl

A sweet 'n' sassy period comedy with a "Juno" sensibility and the soul of a "Little Miss Sunshine," the hard-to-resist Dirty Girl announces the official arrival of Juno Temple.

For those not hip to its smug "out is in" mentality, Dirty Girl's redeeming feature is its cast. Temple is vixen enough to carry the part, but manages to project a real wit burning beneath the layers of makeup and dumb-blonde shtick her character affects around others.

Watching this movie is like eating a hot fudge sundae and lasagna in alternating bites.

Deep down, though, this movie by the first-time writer-director Abe Sylvia is desperate for approval. Starting out with a blast of profanity and sexual brazenness, it lands in a zone of earnest, sloppy weepiness.

A standout in smaller parts in films like "Kaboom" and "Atonement," this frizzy blond actor has the air of a star-in-training in search of the right opportunity. This isn't it, unfortunately, but Temple does turn what's essentially a magical-hussy role into something more grounded and human.

Writer-director Abe Sylvia slathers on the cartoonish characterization and neon-colored '80s pop - Benatar! Joan Jett! The Outfield! - for an easy-bake mood-setting, which is tedious enough. But his attempts at situational humor on the road - including a stripping scene for Dozier as coming-out metaphor - fall embarrassingly flat.

In many ways, the film is history repeating itself, as the same Weinstein brothers who famously dropped $10 million on "Happy, Texas" in 1999 have overpaid again for "Happy, Texas 2."

It's interesting to me that so many of the critic reviews are negative and the audience is so positive. I saw the movie over the weekend and just loved it. When you think of a coming to age movie this is rare. This is about a sexually acting out girl meeting up with a gay **** this is not uncommon given that both can be outcasts. The support they gave each other; the freedom they got from each other; the strength to move forward was remarkable. The movie is about the real fact that it "can get better" for those young folks that feel so different. The critics missed the importance of this movie. Make sure you see **** will change your life if by chance you are the mother of one of these "types" of kids. A really great movie

I saw this movie last night at the ArcLight Hollywood, it was amazing! What a refreshing change from all the junk that is being released these days. I can hardly believe that critics don't like this. All I can think is that they are not comfortable with strong women and or gay males, what a shame in this day and age. The music is fantastic, I am going to buy the soundtrack. As one who was raised in the mid-west during the 80"s the hairdo's and outfits were spot on! It was a walk down memory lane, I laughed through the entire movie as did the entire audience . If you are up for some great humor, I highly recommend this movie.

I tried to like this movie, I really did, but it was rough. While I enjoyed the unlikely friendship between the 2 main characters, the other relationships in this movie were awful. The heart of the story got lost in the ugliness all around them, including cringe-worthy language and unhealthy dynamics. I understand it was a different time, but a lot of the script felt unnecessary. If you can sludge through all the muck, there is something beautiful there, and Juno Temple is a great actress, despite this, but I just couldn't fall in love like I hoped.

An interesting twist on your standard coming of age story, but that's all there is. I agree that many of the critic reviews seemed harsh. Did I enjoy this film? Yes, I did. It has some funny moments (not too many) and the character development, while cliched, is enjoyable to watch. I was not a big fan of the acting, not bad but nothing to write home about. Perhaps the worse element was the music. I love 80's music. I love New Wave. I didn't love the way this film seemingly used the same few 80's pop hits to repeatedly drive the point home the film took place in the 80's! Every time the sound cut out and and a rip-roaring 80's toon came on, I groaned. One little music montage would have been fine but this film goes way beyond that. Would I recommend this film? Not particularly. Unless someone said they had a passion for 80's music and coming of age stories.

I went to a sneak peak of this movie at the Castro Theater in San Francisco and had not heard anything about it, so had no expectations. The movie is mediocre at best and after seeing the writer/director, Juno Temple, and a surprise appearance by Melissa Manchester at the Castro I wanted to like it more. The likely mostly gay crowd at the Castro hootted, guffawed and hissed, but it all felt forced. The comedy is way to broad and most of the characters are caricatures (the chubby gay boy, the hateful homophobic dad, the school bully). I too was a chubby (closeted) gay teen in the early 80's right across the Red River in Texas, so should have been able to relate, but the connection just wasn't there. Although some will find the flour-sack baby cloying, I didn't mind it and thought it could have worked in a better movie. The two saving graces I found were the 80's songs, some of which were obvious and others more subtle, and Juno Temple. There was one scene at the end between her and Tim McGraw that was truly beautiful and didn't fit in with the rest of the movie. I was kind of blown away when she came out and I learned that she is actually British. I went so far as to pull up IMDB after the show to see if I had sen her before (small parts in Atonement and Greenberg), but her work in this film, and especially that one scene, indicate the girl can act if she is given the right role.