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Factory Girl Review

Release Date: Feb 02, 2007
Rated: pervasive drug use, strong sexual content, nudity and language
Runtime: 1 hr. 27 min.
Genres: Art House/Foreign, Drama
Director:George Hickenlooper
Cast:Sienna Miller, Hayden Christensen, Guy Pearce, Jimmy Fallon, Mena Suvari. Full cast + crew

Movies.com Critics

1.0

Dave White Profile <h3>Dave White</h3> <p><strong>Your Movies.com Man at the Multiplex</strong></p> <br /> <p>Dave White's first movie review was of the animated feature Snoopy Come Home. He was seven years old...<a href="http://www.movies.com/movie-reviews/dave-white">Read full profile</a></p>

… so scattered and borderline incoherent … Read full review

Other Critics provided by Metacritic.com

Critics scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

3.0

45

out of 100

Metascore^®
Mixed or average reviews
based on a weighted average of all
critic review scores.
30

out of 100

The New York Times Stephen Holden
The kindest thing to be said about this deluxe photo spread of a film is that Sienna Miller's Edie and Guy Pearce's Andy capture their characters' images and body language with relative precision.

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30

out of 100

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
It's more like "That Girl" on speed than anything else.

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50

out of 100

Variety Robert Koehler
The wild, unhinged life of Andy Warhol's favorite "superstar," Edie Sedgwick, is refashioned in Factory Girl as a tame biopic with little feel for the 1960s New York Underground.

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50

out of 100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
It's lively but chaotic and evasive. The period re-creation switches on and off. We get a sense of what the silver-walled Factory was like, but not the rest of swinging Manhattan in the '60s.

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60

out of 100

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden
Director George Hickenlooper captures the energy and ultra-irony of Warhol's scene, but his attempts to give the film a conventional biopic arc end up wallowing in dime-store psychology.

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63

out of 100

USA Today Claudia Puig
If not for Sienna Miller's engaging portrayal of Edie Sedgwick, Factory Girl would have little to offer.

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67

out of 100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
As Factory Girl more than acknowledges, Edie Sedgwick's downward spiral was ultimately her own doing. Yet even as the film captures the silk-screen outline of her rise and fall, it never quite colors in who she was.

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See all Factory Girl reviews at Metacritic.com

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For Families provided by Common Sense Media

Iffy for 16+

True story of drugs and sex is for adults only.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this tragic biopic about Edie Sedgwick isn't for kids. Pieced together through scenes of the often-bizarre underground world of Andy Warhol's mid-'60s Factory, it includes graphic images of sex, drinking, drugs, causal nudity, and soft porn. Edie shares memories of incest with her father (starting when she was 8), her brother's suicide, her first time having sex (while at a mental hospital), her parents giving her drugs from a young age, and more. Fashion-crazy teens may be drawn by star Sienna Miller's uncanny resemblance to Sedgwick -- whose iconic fashion sense has given her cult status today. But the movie's language, the characters' decadent debauchery, and, frankly, the extremely depressing story line about a privileged young woman's doomed life make it too much even for teens.

Families can talk about the art of Andy Warhol. What message do his images of household items send?
Parents should also address Sedgwick's seduction into Warhol's Factoryand what was really missing in her life -- a solid ground to call home.
How did this affect the direction Sedgwick's life took?

The good stuff

Messages: The price of fame and fortune for Edie was tragic. The frightening experiences she had as a child with her family, mostly her father, always haunted her and influenced her decisions. The movie deals with incest, drug use, exploitive behavior, and more.
Role models: Edie's tragic life is depicted with brutal, disturbing honesty. Nothing redeeming here.

What to watch for

Violence: Discussion of Edie's brother hanging himself; visuals of needles poking into bruised, painful skin; a man is told to be rough with Edie sexually while filming.
Sex: Front and rear nudity; men and women are seen having sex passionately and casually; scenes of soft porn with woman and man in bed in underwear; discussion of when Edie first "made it" incest; implications of junkies having sex with Edie; images of her as a child watching her father have sex with neighbor; woman records sounds of sex and plays them for Warhol.
Language: Frequent uses of "s--t," "f--k," "ass," "c--k," and more.
Consumerism: Pop culture references from the '60s used to establish place and time -- songs, art, etc.
Drinking, drugs and smoking: Constant drinking, smoking (cigarettes and pot), injecting heroin, and popping pills. Edie says that her father pumped her with pills, which enabled them to admit her to the mental hospital.

Common Sense Media

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