Factory Girl

Writers Aaron Richard Golub, Captain Mauzner and Simon Monjack and director George Hickenlooper recount the sad meteoric life of Edie Sedgwick (Sienna Miller), from her starry-eyed arrival in New York in 1964 through her stint as muse for Andy Warhol (Guy Pearce) to her descent into alcohol and drug abuse and her death at 28 from a barbiturate overdose. The film uses choppy mixed-media visuals and scratchy, primitive sound to portray Warhol’s Factory in squalid bohemian tones and Warhol himself as an airy, withdrawn Svengali, coolly cutting Edie off when he becomes bored with her. It’s jerky, with a flat, uneven pace, but well-acted. Hayden Christensen plays a folk singer identified as “the Musician” or “Billy Quinn” but clearly modeled on Bob Dylan (who reportedly threatened to sue for defamation).