First-time writer-director Elizabeth Wood's White Girl sets out to be a Great Gatsby for the 21st century - and perhaps in the process, to depict the orgastic future that Fitzgerald mentioned at the story's end.
Saylor is alternately stiff and extraordinary here, not so great at playing the sober innocent but an ace at the blurry motions of someone who's extremely wasted.
Neatly plotted and minimally staged, the movie marks Wood as a talent to watch, but Saylor deserves equal credit for her layered performance as the title character, a confident young woman who crumbles into a confused and frightened child.
Despite errors made, the film's embrace of sexual agency is well, bracing. The memorable ending justifies nearly everything that came before. Contains graphic sex, degradation and sexual violence.
"White Girl" vividly charts what is at times a violent culture clash. But it is the young lovers' desperate attempt to bridge the gap between their worlds that makes the film so deeply moving.
When White Girl isn't dressing up as a morality play, it sharply confronts the social and political anxieties of the most idealistic generation in generations.
"White Girl" announces the arrival of a director of considerable verve, and its choice of style and subject toes a similarly tricky line between leering exploitation and unflinching portraiture.
Frequently difficult to watch, White Girl is the powerful feature debut of a filmmaker with original vision and clear talent -- and a movie that proves a lead actress can possess the gift of transformative performance skills.
