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Reviews
Dirty Girl (2010)
Great Little Indy Film
I went into this movie with relatively low expectations; looking around on Netflix for something to watch to kill a bit of time, and left thinking it was the best movie I've seen in a long time. I laughed, I cried; I emphasized with the characters.
Juno Temple gives a great performance as the girl with the bad reputation of being the "dirty girl" at her school, who gets thrown into a class of misfits after her misbehavior, which included Clarke, who was struggling with coming out of the closet; wonderfully portrayed by Jeremy Dozier. The two get paired up on a project unwillingly to raise a flower sack "baby," who ends up being a cute little part of the movie as its expressions change throughout.
Dwight Yoakam as always did a great job of playing a mean and nasty guy as Clarke's homophobic father. Mary Steenbrugen gave a laudable performance as his mother; Juno Temple was as cute as a bug in the movie, the 80s soundtrack is great; lots of laughs throughout, plenty of scenes where you could feel especially for Clarke. At the end I wondered if her character would have went on to have any relationship with her father, who despite not wanting her to live with him, turned out to be a really good man; and the experience of meeting him, coupled with finding out the truth that her father thought she was aborted, but that her mother chose to keep her made her see her mom in a whole different light, and made her reform herself from being the "dirty girl." I'm sure I will watch this movie may more times over the years. It has all the charm of an 80s John Hughes film.
Heart of the Country (2013)
Nice Movie With Good Values
I think I enjoyed Gerald McRaney the most as Calvin, the father in the movie. He was great at playing a guy with a gruff exterior, but a heart of gold who'd do anything for his girls. I did kinda want to see her end up with the doctor, but in the end she chose to honor her wedding vows, which I think sends an awesome message. There aren't enough movies being made today that portray a Biblical world view. Jana Kramer is a beautiful lady with a beautiful voice; she was great in the role of Faith. I liked that Luke fessed up to what he did and took his knocks, and the overall theme of the movie of the importance of family. I watched it on Netflix; feel like it was a couple hours well spent; in the end I felt uplifted by this nice little movie.