Heidi Ho

The first thing I thought. when these two met, was that Hailey didn’t look like a girl who craved adult male attention, but more like me when I was a teenage lesbian separatist (I.e. abuse victim who hated and feared men in a shell shocked, potentially vengeful kind of way). Although I have since dealt with my issues and am no longer bitter toward men, I WAS disgusted when the flirting began. It seemed they were portraying Hailey as, perhaps, mature and self-possessed enough that a tryst between the two would be ok. Turns out my first observation (about Hailey not having daddy issues was not far off, at least not the kind of issues we are initially led to believe). This film is exactly what my teenage self wished I could convey with my man-hating dogma. I’m so glad someone wrote this movie so another wounded girl doesn’t have to aspire to be a psychopathic martyr. However, the protagonist and my (much less effective) stance were really just symbolic of what growing up in a pedophile nation does to the female psyche. This film sums up why, when I was asked to pose for a photographer on a city street at 14, I answered him with only a steely gaze. It’s why I had quit performing arts and sunk into a defensive position in the world, but fantasized about showing men how that feels. Again, I have no need for vengeance now, but this captures the rage that went with losing my childhood and humanity as a victim of actual, witnessed, and threatened sexual violence.

At first, I thought this would be a rather tame documentary like others I’ve seen made for TV, owing to the brothel owner’s buttoned up carriage and adamantly Vanilla predelictions. OK, she’s a square (US slang for “not a working girl”). As a rival former heaux and madam says, “She’s not Sex Work,” but that’s exactly what I find endearing about this lady and her house. As her featured employee says, she takes in stray women like the animals she adopts, but when you see how accepting she is of them, it’s genuine, not cliche. Many storefront, legal or quasi-legal brothels, strip clubs, etc. are sex-positive, but not quite as worker friendly. That goes for other adult businesses, too. Hypocritically, some embrace policies which approve of the service, but not the “dark side” (as this madam calls it) of the women who provide it. As an adult movie actress and addict in the Drugs, Inc. documentary, “X-rated High,” said, drug use is common and necessary to do the work but is kept behind closed doors...as soon as use is confirmed, you’re blacklisted. This madam accepts her employees, warts and all, and offers one who is addicted a hot meal and a place to crash “for a week” when she comes down. She allows her real struggles to be documented, even the teen trafficking she endured, rather than sanitizing the business. She doesn’t even seem to mind her working truck stops on the side, which I assume she doesn’t profit from...it likely creates competition. As it turns out, her squeamishness about certain menu requests comes from a desire to protect the workers from harm, not closed-mindedness or sex-negativity, as the party line would have it. Turns out, the “madam” makes most of her money from brothel tours. She’s the kind of benevolent outsider you’d like to see infiltrate migrant labor or the fast food industry, and humanize the workers, becoming a voice for safety standards and the living wage. Sure, at times she’s a bit preachy, but her staff knows how to handle themselves. I only wish they gave more information about some of the contributors to the film. They must be well known locally, but I’d like to know more about them. A sympathetic and humanizing look at a dying red light district and its occupants. Edit: The ending is sad... I guess no one is a saint, but I suppose she does have to stay open.

It’s a little cheesy and B-movie-ish, but there are enough good moments and themes to make it watchable. I thought the lead actress was winning enough to evoke sympathy and keep me engaged, despite a pretty cliche script. The casting is less believable with other characters. There is not a drug addicted mother bad off enough to groom her daughter for clients who looks like the beautiful, tanned and toned actress who played the role. She looks more like a trophy wife, or at least like she’s led a charmed life. Her persona says the same. I can’t see what the daughter sees in the male lead. I was never rooting for that romance to work, as he seems like progressively more of a jerk from start to finish. I don’t see who would want him. I can’t tell who is supposed to be a pimp or a trick, or what, at times. I do like that it’s a mostly sensitive portrayal of what often precedes girls being bought and sold, and shows how really naive and trusting young girls often are. I don’t like the depictions of nudity and sexuality of “teen” girls. It promotes viewing teen girls as sex symbols and highly glamorizes prostitution, when most runaway youth don’t end up in any such “high class” setting. In the movie, it looks like an endless party until the pretense falls away. The movie is meant as a cautionary tale. Still, as poor as I grew up, I think I might have seen this movie and figured it was worth the risks to live in beautiful surroundings, dress like a star, etc. There was a 1990s movie, starring Juliette Lewis, with the same theme that showed her doing dates in alleys at 14-15 and sleeping in a car with her drug-addled exploiter, which is a lot more realistic. Still, Girl Lost has a great message that you can’t trust anyone in the business, when you’re too young to rent an apartment. I think you are supposed to conclude that the lead’s mother exposing her to the life ruined her daughter’s chances. I think there was a (no doubt unintentional) message that sometimes you’re better off sticking with your messed up family, because, in their backward way, they still look out for you better than strangers. It’s not all bad and some things ring true, but I wouldn’t want my kids watching it without also reading or watching interviews of child trafficking victims, to compare and contrast. The storyline would be similar but the glamour would not!

These parents obviously don’t watch or read enough True Crime. If you want to pull off a cover-up, plant seeds of doubt about other people of interest. Don’t report specific false allegations that can easily be disproved and, by all means, don’t commit additional crimes. There is no way a lawyer would ever be as stupid as we are supposed to believe the mother in this story is. One minute, she’s accurately gauging the probability of her child being tried as an adult and the next minute, she’s co-signing a plot straight from “America’s Dumbest Criminals.” This movie insulted my intelligence and strained my patience. The ending made me want my 2 hours back. If I could rate only the acting, I would give 5 stars, but everyone’s talents and time were squandered on this project. I wouldn’t want to average points for the movie and the acting and give anyone the idea that watching this tripe would be an “ok,” or “average,” experience, which is what 3 stars means. I hope the actors and any potential viewers will be on to bigger and better things. Personally, I regret not taking a nap, instead of watching this. It’s that bad.

I liked this movie. I had an experience with a deranged woman who used to hang out with kids and buy them liquor and drugs when I was a kid. It’s not as far-fetched as people think. I love Octavia Spencer in it. She definitely carries it well. I’ve known people like this, who know they aren’t rich, “cool,” or important, so they get people’s attention by force. Spencer really “gets” this character, and the writer’s intentions. She can show different sides to her. I know some people say things don’t mesh or fit together in this movie, but I think that’s kind of the point. I think they could have developed her relationships with the kids and had her playing more psychological games. She could have had those boys cheating on their popular girlfriends and infighting going on, spreading rumors and feeding their insecurities. She could have pulled that off due to her sophistication, regardless of her age and dumpy style of dress...except every now and then they had to dress her up pretty because she IS Octavia Spencer, after all. I appreciate that they didn’t kill any animals in the movie, or portray killing animals. I would have been out. That would have been an easy shock value cliche with the psycho veterinarian’s assistant character. The fact that they had her working with animals made me pretty worried. But this movie didn’t didn’t need cliches because it was good. I liked the foreshadowing in the first party scene, when the boy made fun of her. You can see a little bit of what makes her tick, right away, but there’s still more in store.