Main Cast: Sandra Bernhard, Kristy Swanson, Tara Subkoff, Loretta Devine, Susan Barnes
Release Year: 1997
Country: US
Run Time: 87 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
This independent drama takes an unexpectedly light and emotionally sensitive approach to a potentially controversial subject -- a teenager taking up a career as a prostitute. Sixteen-year-old Jake (Tara Subkoff) is a pretty but troubled girl who has been abandoned by her mother. Needing a place to stay, she shows up on the doorstep of her sister Darlene (Kristy Swanson) and begs her to take her in. Darlene refuses, and Jake is left with nowhere to go. Marci (Sandra Bernhard), Darlene's next door neighbor, takes pity on Jake and gives her a meal and a place to stay for the night. The next morning, Marci heads off for work and Jake tags along to discover that Marci manages a massage parlor. Jake is a bit naive about what goes on at such places, but after meeting Marci's charges -- Bambi (Sahara Lotti), Coco (Loretta Devine), and Teddy (Renee Humphrey) -- she catches on that the women are offering their male clientele more than a simple rubdown. Needing money, Jake asks Marci for a job; Marci says no, since Jake is underage, but after much begging and pleading, Marci agrees under the condition that Jake make herself scarce when Jean (Susan Barnes), the owner, comes around. Jake becomes friendly with Bambi, Coco, and Teddy, who show her the ropes of her new "career" and let her stay at their communal apartment. Soon Jake is making a good living, and Darlene is impressed enough to get a job of her own at the parlor. However, Darlene doesn't get along with the other women any better than she does with Jake, and when Jake's friends get on Darlene's bad side, she turns Jake in for working underage, which leaves everyone out in the cold. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Although it's unpolished and sometimes loses its footing, this fluffy indie drama parlays its fine performances, well-structured script, and quirky je ne sais quois into an oddly affecting combination. Tara Subkoff gives a grave, sweet lead performance as Jake, a sugar-addicted teen with a deadbeat mom, a loser sister, and nowhere to go. Simultaneously naive and knowing, but never coy, Subkoff's portrayal brings out the nascent maternal side in Sandra Bernhard, who tries, usually successfully, to reign in the wilder aspects of her persona. The emotional dynamics between Bernhard and Subkoff shine through even when the actresses are saddled with stilted dialogue by writer/directors Lisa Addario and Joe Syracuse. Any such rough patches are worth sitting through, anyway, just for the priceless scene where Subkoff's puppy dog-like Jake, having climbed into bed with Bernhard's cynical Marci, explains to her new mom-figure the precise calculations she uses to choose each night's candy feast. The very idea that a futureless teen could find a surrogate mom in the form of a massage parlor madam may strike some as fantastical. But unlike, say, Spike Lee's Girl 6, Lover Girl never treats sex work as glamorous or liberating. The characters band together into a makeshift family, but in the end, the job is distasteful, trashy, and low paying. As for the parlor's other denizens, Susan Barnes is terrific as the brassy proprietress, Loretta Devine camps it up delightfully as one of the employees, and Kristy Swanson is convincingly sullen and manipulative as Jake's sister. With its mixture of soiled expectations, strip mall banality, and girly exuberance, the production design cleverly captures the spirit of the script; it doesn't hurt that the producers sprang for some decent music (Team Dresch, Cibo Matto) and killer costumes. Its story may be offbeat and its worldview a little skewed, but this is one labor-of-love indie with a cohesive aesthetic that carries through every aspect of the production. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Heidi Klein - Casting, Robin Klein - Casting, Ross Hammer - Co-producer, Lansing Parker - Co-producer, Victoria Farrell - Costume Designer, Eric Mofford - First Assistant Director, Lisa Addario - Director, Joe Syracuse - Director, Poppy Das - Editor, Allison Anders - Executive Producer, Mark Kilian - Composer (Music Score), Elisabeth A. Scott - Production Designer, Dean Lent - Cinematographer, Larry Rattner - Producer, Ehud Bleiberg - Producer, Yitzhak Ginsberg - Producer, Mark Pierce - Producer, Jason Maltz - Sound/Sound Designer, Lisa Addario - Screenwriter, Joe Syracuse - Screenwriter
