shawnblackman
A young woman falls for a small time drug dealer who ends up in jail facing a long sentence. She has no money but needs 17 000 dollars to get a decent lawyer and pay a dealer back. How far will she go to get it?
You have to go long along with the idea that she loves this man (that she just met) so much she'll do however many people it takes to get him out. Most of the film she is snorting coke and having sex but it is necessary for the context of the plot.This film is gritty and down right depressing but entertaining at the same time. Try and catch this one but be warned (or notified) that there are a few explicit scenes.
ComedyFan2010
This movie makes an obvious "white privilege" statement. "White Girl" is both the brand of cocaine and the protagonist. Basically, white girls are dumb and naive. Their partying also destroys the lives of decent Latino drug dealers. If it wasn't for her he sure would be fine. And if it was a black girl she would never make any mistakes. Yes, SJWs I get your point.But luckily this obvious point just lets one roll our eyes and yet isn't pushed to hard so one can just watch the story.I don't think all the sex and drugs are supposed to shock the audience, they actually are supposed to look as part of everyday life that she chose which is can come off as dull for some. The movie goes by very fast though by showing all we need to see and not concentrating on character issues that are not part of the movie's present.The acting is great. I was very impressed by Morgan Saylor and Brian Marc who both let us understand the emotions of their characters without the movie introducing us to character depth. The supporting characters were also well done. Worth mentioning are Justin Bartha whom I didn't even recognize and Chris Noth whom I was exited to see, his facial performance is always perfect.The ending is great. I know that it is supposed to show her privilege as well, but it was a great idea of contrast.So all in all it was a decent movie worth watching.
jrodhaynes
Likened to Larry Clark's controversial Kids, White Girl sheds light on an often known, but cloaked, New York City lifestyle, riddled with malice and a fleeting sense of love and acceptance. Morgan Saylor's performance is reminiscent of Rachel Miner in Clark's Bully, and her wanton romance with co-star Brian Marc offers viewers a titillating look into the makings of a bad romance. Director Elizabeth Wood seems to have a similar taste in story and directing style as Clark, and, following this directorial debut, her future filmography seems promising. The story delves deep into the examination of 'white privilege' and the grips of a disadvantaged, urban class. While the romance between Saylor and Marc's characters may seem fanciful and impractical, Wood invites us to suspend our disbelief and open our eyes to an alarming reality that faces millennials in love. And by the film's end, just like Saylor's character, Leah, we are left asking what we would do in the name of love. The on screen chemistry between all of the characters seemed genuine, believable, and compelling. The most enjoyable aspects of the film were letting go as a viewer and following a seemingly ordinary college student into a dark world characterized by drugs, sex, and, what should be, reggae-ton. It's not a world many have traversed, but one that has aimed to seduce many of us in our youths. The soundtrack accompanying the scenes makes the film feel like a celluloid of simultaneous nostalgia and insanity. Can a young, White girl attending college in New York fall into the hands of a charming drug dealer? The plot is far from implausible, as some of the scenes may lead on, and it's a journey that at times is ugly and rife with melancholy.The film does not bear much re-watch value, but it does hold strong as the first edition in a hopefully favorable series of films that explore the "underground" of urban teens and their escapades.
Michael Jones
Thematically, White Girl is exactly what it says on the tin, it's about race, and about gender. It's an attempt at outlining the main character's naivety and her ability to come out of it unscathed as a result of her privilege. An idea that, if it wasn't already obvious enough, Elizabeth Wood beats us over the head with in the scene where Leah has dinner with the lawyer.White Girl is unapologetically feminist, and being directed by a woman, it gets a lot of this right, Leah isn't a trope, she's not a stereotype, she's a naive young girl who makes a lot of really, really terrible decisions. But while this is the basis of her character, the protagonist, as well as the rest of the people in this film, are only explored on a surface level. Meaning that it's difficult to care about what they do, or what happens to them. Especially Leah, who knows that as a pretty white girl, there's a lot that she can get away with, and come out unharmed. And we know that too.Not only is White Girl difficult to get pulled in to as a result of its lack of a real sense of consequence, it also seems to push us away with its sloppy attempt at shock cinema. Every other scene is someone snorting coke, getting their tits out, or puking their guts up (is there anyone in this movie who doesn't do drugs?) Some of the comments on sexuality, especially female sexuality are interesting, and there's clearly a lot to say here about the male gaze and the danger of that towards young women, but then the gratuitous sex scenes never stop in an attempt to shock us, and we lose interest.As a drug dealer drama, and a comment on race, Wood hits all of the tropes that we'd expect. Many of the characters are stereotypes, and the writing for the male drug dealers sounds like it was written by my dad, guessing how he things a drug dealer probably talks. The attempts at making the love interest more of a love interest and less of a sex interest were hilarious at times, this movie just couldn't get the dialogue right for those characters at all, it was awkward as hell.White Girl was summed up for me when Doug from The Hangover got cocaine snorted off his dick.4.5/10
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