Factory Girl

George Hickenlooper's Factory Girl—the “factory” is Andy Warhol's famous New York art studio, and the “girl” is Edie Sedgwick, a disaffected high society heiress who became the “superstar” of the artist's underground movies—is basically an old-fashioned poor little rich girl story gussied up with 1960s glitter. Factory Girl is bookended by a staged reconstruction of a 1970 interview with Sedgwick (Sienna Miller) when she was undergoing treatment for drug addiction and looking back—not without bitterness—on the past five years, starting in 1965 when she fell into the orbit of the wraithlike but strangely charismatic Warhol (a ghostly Guy Pearce) and quickly became his cinematic leading lady. We follow Edie's descent into drugs, financial battles with her father, and halting romance with a famous folk singer called Billy (played by Hayden Christensen—and clearly meant to invoke Bob Dylan), all of which eventually lead Warhol to distance himself from her as she sinks into a self-destructive cycle. Unfortunately, while the director employs flashy technique to camouflage a threadbare, relatively low-budget production, and the cast works hard to invest the thinly-drawn characters with some depth, the film is ultimately as vacuous as the milieu in which it's set. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director George Hickenlooper, “The Real Edie” on the life of film subject Edie Sedgwick (28 min.), costar “Guy Pearce's Video Diary” (20 min.), a 10-minute “making-of” featurette, star Sienna Miller's audition tape (7 min.), a brief deleted scene with optional commentary, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for an ultimately disappointing film.] (F. Swietek)