Themes: Sibling Relationships, Musician's Life, All Washed Up
Main Cast: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mare Winningham, Ted Levine, Max Perlich, John Doe
Release Year: 1995
Country: FR/US
Run Time: 117 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
An unflinching drama of frustrated ambition and troubled siblings, Georgia examines the relationship between a self-destructive, would-be rock singer and her sister, a successful folk musician. Sadie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is the younger, more troubled sister, a wild child with a taste for reckless behavior, from her dangerous romances to her attachments to drugs and alcohol. Hopping between low-rent clubs, Sadie struggles to make it from gig to gig, delivering rawly emotional performances that lack technical skill. Her repeated career failures drive her further into addiction, sending her life into a downward spiral. Ultimately, she is forced to seek help from her sister Georgia (Mare Winningham), who is everything Sadie is not: married, financially secure, and blessed with a smooth voice that has won her popular success. A clash of seemingly opposite personalities follows, as Georgia attempts to help Sadie without becoming damaged herself. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
Review
Difficult to watch and hard to look away from, this emotional traffic wreck of a movie divided viewers and critics and failed to earn a popular audience despite an Oscar nod for Mare Winningham in the title role. Some felt Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance too mannered, but even her detractors have to admit that the actress is fearless. Whether high on smack, sullenly mooching off her family, or ruining a bar mitzvah with her raspy yelping, Leigh's Sadie lurches through life, a black hole of need, determined to become the one thing her lack of ability won't let her. Plenty of the actress's scenes are nakedly painful to watch, but the most harrowing is the sequence in which she takes the stage to croak a Van Morrison classic triumphantly and interminably, unaware of her own talentlessness and of the burning eyes of the sister she's embarrassing. Georgia herself is a serene, satisfied mother and wife, proficient and popular, but lacking in passion. Winningham's performance is therefore more measured, less showy than Leigh's, but it's just as impressive for its restraint and range. A who's who of indie talent, including Max Perlich and John C. Reilly, fleshes out the first-rate cast. But the entire effort hinges on the screenplay, written by Leigh's mother, Barbara Turner. Deliberate and disturbing, it's a powerful examination of oft-neglected grown-up sibling dynamics. Director Ulu Grosbard presents the story simply, but that's all he needs to do, and for those who can stomach the emotional carnage, the film's an engrossing success. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Rondi Tucker - Art Director, Kira Smith - Boom Operator, Renee Rousselot - Casting, Jodi Rothfield - Casting, Katie Ryan - Casting, Carol Oditz - Costume Designer, Craig Huston - First Assistant Director, Ulu Grosbard - Director, Elizabeth Kling - Editor, Ben Barenholtz - Executive Producer, Lori Guidroz - Hair Styles, Meg McHutchison - Location Manager, Amanda DiGuilio - Line Producer, Norman Gimbel - Composer (Music Score), Steven Soles - Composer (Music Score), Mark Weingarten - Musical Direction/Supervision, Steven Soles - Songwriter, Micheline Trepanier - Makeup, Peter K. Anderson - Camera Operator, Ed Ewing - Camera Operator, David Frederick - Camera Operator, Lulu Gargiulio - Camera Operator, Lester Cohen - Production Designer, Jan Kiesser - Cinematographer, Jennifer Jason Leigh - Producer, Barbara Turner - Producer, Ulu Grosbard - Producer, Crista Schneider - Set Designer, Don Dumas - Special Effects, Amanda DiGuilio - Unit Production Manager, Barbara Turner - Screenwriter, Mark Botvinick - Production Assistant, Steven Soles - Music Producer, Lemore Syvan - Post Production Supervisor, Melissa Matthies - Properties Master, Lee Dichter - Re-Recording Mixer, Lou Ann Quast - Script Supervisor, Lynn Wegenka - Second Assistant Director, Kirk R. Gardner - Steadicam Operator, Skip Lievsay - Supervising Sound Editor, Alun Vick - Construction Coordinator, Fred Rosenberg - Dialogue Editor, Tina Kerr - Extra Casting, Steven E. Eyrse - Scenic Artist, Elisa Sansalone - Second Second Assistant Director, George M. Abeyta - Set Dresser, Robert A. Neer - Set Dresser, Mary Seibert - Set Dresser, Mark Weingarten - Production Sound Mixer
"Georgia (film)" redirects here. For the American-Finnish-Georgian production about war in South Osethia, see Georgia (2010 film). For the earlier Australian production, see Georgia (1988 film).
Georgia is a 1995 American independent film starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Mare Winningham. In the film, Leigh played Sadie Flood, a punky barroom singer who has a complicated, jealous but loving relationship with her older sister, Georgia, played by Winningham. Georgia is a successful, talented and well-adjusted folk music singer and a happily married mother of two. Sadie is passionate but self-destructive and untalented. While she seeks fame, she destroys herself through drug and alcohol abuse. Although the movie focuses largely on Sadie, it was apparently titled Georgia because Sadie defines her own identity so much through her older sister.
John Doe of the punk band X played a supporting role and performed as a member of Sadie's band. The music in the film consisted of 13 songs which were recorded live and performed by the actors ("a risk that has paid off spectacularly in terms of emotional intensity", according to Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan). These included covers of songs by Lou Reed, Elvis Costello and, most famously, Van Morrison: in the talked-about centrepiece of the film, Sadie drunkenly performs a raw, gruelling 8½-minute version of Morrison's "Take Me Back" in a ragged Janis Joplin-style gut howl at an AIDSbenefit concert. It's a scene that some viewers found mesmerizing while others found it insufferable.[citation needed]
The film was a very personal project for Jennifer Jason Leigh: it was written by her mother, Barbara Turner, Leigh and Turner co-produced it themselves, and she chose as her co-star her longtime real-life friend Mare Winningham, whom she had known since the age of 13. It was directed by Ulu Grosbard, a friend of her mother's.
Georgia was released in the U.S. on December 8, 1995. It received a positive critical reception. Susan Wloszczyna of USA Today described the film as "a painful though sadly humorous portrait of sisterhood," and Roger Ebert said Georgia was "a complex, deeply knowledgeable story about a truly lost soul and her downward spiral" in his 3.5/4-star review.[2]. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said “Georgia is Leigh’s high-wire act, and her fierce, funny, exasperating and deeply affecting portrayal commands attention.”[citation needed]James Berardinelli of Reel Views praised it as “a tour de force for Leigh... there are times when it's uncomfortable to watch this performance because it's so powerful”, adding “Georgia doesn't possess an amazingly original narrative, but what distinguishes this picture is the depth of the characters and the amazing power with which the two leads breathe life into them.”[citation needed] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said “Leigh’s exceptional performance tears you apart… we’ve never seen anything like it before”, adding that "Georgia is not an easy film, but in the American independent arena, it outperforms everything in sight.”[3] It was also voted one of 1995’s ten best films by Interview, New York Post, Detroit Free Press, Los Angeles Daily News and ABC Radio Network.[citation needed]
Reception
Jennifer Jason Leigh was voted the year’s Best Actress by the New York Film Critics Circle and at the Montreal World Film Festival, nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, and was widely predicted to receive her first Academy Award nomination for the role.[citation needed] Surprisingly though, it was Mare Winningham who actually went on to receive an Oscar nomination (as well as an Independent Spirit Award and Screen Actors Guild nomination) as Best Supporting Actress, while Leigh was controversially overlooked by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, much to the disappointment of critics and fans. Speaking to MetroActive magazine, Winningham said: “I felt incredibly honored and touched to be nominated… But it was hard to be separated from Jennifer, because she was the heart and soul of that film. While we were making the movie, I thought not only that she would get a nomination, but that she would win. I saw the kind of work she was doing. In my mind she will always be the greatest performance of that year, and a lot of other people thought so, too. Meryl Streep grabbed me at the Academy Awards. She said, 'Jennifer should be here!' and I said, 'I know!'”[4] When Leaving Las Vegas star Elisabeth Shue won her Independent Spirit Award as Best Actress, she personally dedicated it to Leigh’s performance in Georgia.[citation needed]
For all its critical acclaim, Georgia was not as successful commercially, grossing only $2.9 million in the U.S. In the ten years since its release, however, it has picked up a small but devoted cult following.[citation needed]
