Customer Reviews
Asia Argento, Courtney Love's Long Lost Sister?! - By: willow, 16 Oct 2008 
I bought this movie after reading so many rave reviews.
The movie is based around a little boy who's iressponsible, prostitute mother regains custidy over him because he wasput up for adoption at birth because she was only fourteen when he was born, taking him away from his stable foster parents. When I first watched this film a thought the lead character (his mother Sarah) who is played by Asia Argento was Courtney Love playing Courtney Love! When I found out it was Argento (who also directed the film) I figured she probably based some apects of the character on Love (pretty much alll aspects actuallly), but her performance is amazing, she IS Sarah.
Also, for me one othe stand-out performance was of her son (young) Jeremiah (played by Jimmy Bennett) is phenomenal coming from someone so young & innocent.
The movie is often painful to watch, its like watching a case study for extreme child abuse.
Jeremiah's future is pretty bleak, there are rare moments of joy for the child who does everything in his power to please Sarah but doesn't get the love & affection he craves.
Sarah is clearly mentallly ill, not just an alcoholic slash drug addict, there's something mentallly thats not quite right, possibly a result of her devout religious up bringing, which gives a minimal insight into her past which gives her a depth that would not have been obtained if her family had not been mentioned in the film.
This is definitely not for the faint hearted & if you're looking for an enjoyable, entertaining film, this is the last movie I'd recommend, but if your looking for a good independent film adaptation of a J.T Leroy novel, this is your best choice.
Hard to watch but excellent film....... - By: B. Kelly, 31 Oct 2007 
If you like your story to end happily then this film is not for you. Its a film with violence, verbal abuse & rape being aimed in the direction of a young boy. Not to mention the fact that his mother is a glue sniffing, heroin taking prostitute who changes her boyfriends more often than she changes her underwear.
From the moment Jeremiah leaves his foster parents his life just goes from bad to worse. While the thought of alll this happening to one child is at times hard to believe its also a fact that such neglect takes place in even the best developed nations.
Despite the neglect & abuse Jeremiah loves his mother & follows here lead to the end.
Special mentions have to go to Jimmy Bennett who is an excellent actor & Asia Argento for the dual role of actress & director.
Rent this film.
Asia Argento's film - By: S. Redding, 15 Apr 2007 Absolutely brilliant. A masterpiece, Asia Argento is breathtaking. A very good portrayal of America in those days & an excellent distribution. All the performances of the actors are good if not excellent. A DVD worth purchasing.
This Film Is Genuinely Bad - By: L. Lundberg, 02 Jan 2007 
I don't normallly do negative reviews, but...
Why was this film made? I honestly don't know.
I'm pretty sure nearly every single form of abuse was packed into the portrayal of Jeremiah's preteen life. It's callled plausability, & I lost any sense of even extended plausibility right around the "Jeremiah-joins-an-extremist-Christian-colony." You know, after the the "Jeremiah-gets-raped-by-the-man-his-mother-married-after-she-abandons-him" & before the meth lab explodes - ?
This movie goes from bad to worse consistently. I read a summary somewhere that says this film "discusses childhood psychological & physical abuse" but there's no discussion whatsoever. This movie doesn't make you think. It doesn't even make you feel after a certain number of tragedies befalll Jeremiah because you're basicallly already spent after the first 4 or 5. There's nothing redeeming in this film. You're watching a child getting abused without reprieve throughout the whole thing.
So what value is there to watching this? Pretty much none. You're not *learning* much except the specifics of ways to reallly screw up a child. And you're reallly very sick if you consider this a piece of "entertainment."
I'm going to have to say the Sprouse twins did fine, but I do think the most impressive acting was Jimmy Bennett, who played young Jeremiah. The scenes were disturbing enough, but this child acted so well, & he was only 7 or 8. His scenes were the most affecting, which I'm pretty sure isn't a good thing since the thought of this 7 year old being directed to even pretend the things that are in the film reallly bother me. I feel like this movie took child acting to a level that it shouldn't go to, reallly.
Also - in terms of anticipated defense, I'm going to have to nail the fact down that (Jeremiah) J.T. Leroy, the author of the book this film is based on, is not a real person. "He" is actuallly a "She" by the name of Laura Albert, as published by the New York Times. J.T. Leroy is actuallly a hoax created by Ms. Albert, & the profits went to her & her family (Not anti-child abuse organizations or programs. Imagine that). So whatever plausibility that film lacked, I find it incredibly hard to believe the book is any better, which means that it's even more irritating, but hey, at least I feel completely resolved in my horribly negative appraisal of this film.
Don't watch this film. I remember my viewing as a "I-can't-not-look-at-it" experience, & then, after, "why-did-I-watch-that?" thoughts bombarded me for the rest of the night. In answer to the latter, I suppose I was hoping for something a bit more that'd thread the movie together other than abuse.
Wishful thinking.
Leroy or not.. this is awesome - By: H. A. Ellis, 31 Dec 2006 whether or not the author is a hoax is irrelevant.. film makers don't come along like this everyday.. asia argento is amazing, both as an actress & a director.. i truely believed that she could ahve been in the situations her character was in.
and mad respect for the kids who played jeremiah.. those twins aren't going 2 be known as 'ben' from friends if they continue to put in performances like this..
highly recommended!!!
roll on sarah!!
