Janie Jones: Movie Review
Thursday, October 27, 2011 4:00PM - By Laura Aguirre
No, Janie Jones isn’t a movie about the insane life of 60s pop singer Marion Mitchell, as the title would have you Clash fans believe. Rather, ’tis a tale about an estranged father and his daughter meeting for the first time. The film is written and directed by David M. Rosenthal, and stars Alessandro Nivola, and one of the youngest actresses to earn an Oscar nomination, Abigail Breslin. This film is dedicated to Rosenthal’s daughter Julia, who inspired him to write Janie Jones on account of meeting her for the first time when he was 30 and she was 11.
The film is a lot like Sofia Coppola‘s Somewhere in that the child acts like the parent and the parent acts like the child. Janie Jones feels like portrait, a window into the lives of two strangers who get to know each other. And believe it or not, “Janie Jones,” the song, and Janie Jones, the movie, do share some common ground – both are rooted in that rock environment, except here, the lead singer is a washed up indie rock star.
