The film takes place in 1987, when sassy Norman High School student Danielle (Juno Temple, soon to be seen in the next Batman movie) runs away with her fat-and-gay best friend and a sack of flour they’ve named Joan. Along the way, she crows things in her best Okie accent like “What are your thoughts on the pullout method?” and “The hell you are!” and “Mister, you don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
She also tries out the “magic fingers” device on a cheap motel bed. Co-starring are Milla Jovovich, William H. Macy, Mary Steenburgen and Dwight Yoakam.
So why Norman?
“Dirty Girl” marks the feature directorial debut of former Broadway dancer Abe Sylvia, who also wrote the screenplay and once upon a time called the Sooner State home.
“I had a weird upbringing,” he told indieWIRE. “I had hippy parents, and we lived in Oklahoma. They grew up in California, so there was a very strange disparity between my family and everyone else’s. And I was overweight and in the closet, and very shy. So while the story is not a true story, it’s certainly influenced by those experiences and the juxtaposition of where you want to be in your life versus where you actually are.”
Sounds like Temple’s last line in the trailer: “Sometimes you’ve got to accept what life throws at you to find out what you’re made of.” We think we read that on a Hallmark card once.
This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 2, 2011.