Starlet

PLOT:
While out looking for items at yard sales to spruce up her bedroom, Jane (played by Dree Hemingway) finds a cute thermos that she wants to turn into a vase. When she finds some money in the vase, Jane wants to find out if she should give the money back to Sadie (played by Besedka Johnson), and 85 year-old widow. Jane's life of spending most of the day getting high with her roommates and walking her dog starts to be less interesting as she learns more and more about Sadie.

ACTING:
Starlet is the first leading role for actress Dree Hemingway, which means it could have gone a number of ways. Most cases the first time goes the way of needing more experience before taking over as the leading role. For Dree Hemingway, being the leading role in this movie seemed like a natural fit. She made the character of Jane be someone that I liked and wanted to follow, though having Dree Hemingway have such a wardrobe as she does sure made watching this actress very easy. Still, as beautiful as this girl is, she does a good job with her character that brings life to a movie that could have been boring. Actually everyone in this movie fits well with their character and does well with their portrayal of them. Besedka Johnson (also a very a cool name) plays her role as the elderly woman who at first don't know who this young girl is and she makes me enjoy her dry, skeptical character. Starlet is a character driven movie, with bad acting, even by one of the cast, and this movie would be a horrendous bore, but the cast was picked very well and they all play well with each other and alone to build a movie that pulled me into their lives.

ORIGINALITY:
This plot is somewhat different for a opposites attract story. Having a young character befriending a older/elderly character is nothing that hasn't been done in other movies. It's a plot that can be quite funny as well as serious but one when done right is good. In this case, Starlet adds a few twists to how these characters meet and how they become friends. I liked it and I liked having a movie to watch that felt like I was watching an actual story unfold rather than some of these blockbuster movies that's coming out lately where it's all about the explosions and 3D.

STORY:
I liked how this story played out where I was kept in the dark with who these people really are at first. Though I was watching both characters play out it was also edited to make it almost like I was discovering these characters at the same time as they learned about each other. Parts of their lives where kept secret/unknown from each other just as it would be in real life, well aside from the job that the character Jane has. I also liked how Jane was taking her dog, Starlet, everywhere she went. Though there is a moment in the movie that includes a graphic sex scene, it's quick but it's filmed in a manner that you still see what's going on. For me this didn't really do much to add to the story, it give me an answer to a question I had, but there are other ways it could have been told. If you are a parent you should be warned that this might not be a movie you would want to watch or let your kid watch, or if you are not wanting to see the graphic sex scene, but if that don't bother you than it's there.

BLU RAY LOOK:
This Blu Ray looks really good with a clear, sharp detailed picture. It has the look of a digitally shot movie with some coloring correcting done to it but it's overall detail is clear with a nice picture. Colors in it were sharp but the lighting was the most impressive as it set the tone of the scene before anything else does. It's a movie that looks good with a decent audio track that I would have to be looking for a problem that is hard to find.