Factory Girl review

The Factory of the title refers to the Andy Warhol studio at the epicentre of New York's art scene during the swinging Sixties. A magnet for the weird and the wonderful, The Factory was primarily filled with mediocre talents trying to get close enough to Warhol to capture some of media spotlight that constantly fell on the pop artist. As he himself declared, "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." For Warhol acolyte and Factory Girl Edie Sedgwick (Sienna Miller), her fifteen minutes of fame were a brief respite from a lifetime (be it a short one) of misery.

George Hickenlooper has directed an adequate, if superficial, fictionalized biopic, one made more palatable by Miller's vibrant performance. The brightest flames burn the quickest and Sedgwick certainly dazzled during her brief reign as an anointed superstar. Factory Girl captures some of her luminosity and it is easy to see why this vivacious, moneyed beauty, from one of America's oldest families, so captivated Warhol. But the film can't resist taking the obviously sensationalist approach, focusing more on the tragic and scurrilous than the serious.

While few of the colourful people in Factory Girl are painted in glowing terms, Warhol (Guy Pearce) emerges as a true villain, along with Sedgwick's domineering and sexually abusive father (James Naughton). Replete with Warhol's overly mannered delivery, Pearce does a convincing turn as the artist, who is depicted here as an opportunist who exploits those around him. Another person unflatteringly portrayed is Bob Dylan, with who Sedgwick had an affair during her time at The Factory. For legal reasons Dylan's name is omitted and the character, who is quite obviously meant to represent the singer, is called Billy Quinn (Hayden Christensen). This anomaly further undermines the film's already spurious credibility.

Topped and tailed with scenes involving Sedgwick in a psychiatric hospital in 1970, Factory Girl focuses on the turbulent few months from the spring of 1965 to the beginning of '66 when the 22 year-old Sedgwick and Warhol were inseparable. The pair would dress alike and she would on occasion even refer to herself as Miss Warhol. Although she trained as an artist, Sedgwick became known primarily for her starring roles in several of Warhol's films. But when her extravagant lifestyle, subsidized by her trust fund, becomes consumed by drugs, her role as Warhol's "poor little rich girl" ends and she finds herself replaced by the next sexy starlet who happens along the Factory conveyer belt.

An enigmatic figure, Sedgwick is one of those whose name is synonymous with Warhol's. And while Factory Girl acts as a frivolous beginner's guide for those who know little about her, it provides little in the way of an in-depth exploration of the person behind the iconic face.

Kevin Murphy