The Metropolis

Preview: Screening of Larry Clark's "anti-establishment skinny-teenager flick" Marfa Girl at the Book Club in Shoreditch

Kathryn Bromwich | Thursday 7 February, 2013 10:34

What: A screening of Marfa Girl
When: 12th February 2013. 6.30pm-9.00pm
Where: The Book Club, Shoreditch, EC2A 4RH
How much: Free

When a film-maker decides to bypass traditional distributors and critics to “reach the fans directly”, warning bells usually start to ring. Is Larry Clark’s flick Marfa Girl one of these films? After winning the top prize at the 2012 Rome Film Festival, it has only been available on the director’s website at a streaming cost of $5.99.

According to Clark, best known for Kids and Bully, which make Skins look like The Tweenies, this eschews the middlemen: “why not just go straight to the people, and cut out the Hollywood distributors and crooks?” But now the Book Club in Shoreditch has been given been given exclusive permission from Clark’s press office to hold a free screening on Tuesday February 12th.

Marfa is a small town in Texas close to the Mexican border. 16-year-old Adam (Adam Mediano), whose half-Hispanic roots make him look “like a young Mick Jagger”, wanders around town being seduced and spanked by a variety of women, from his heavily pregnant history teacher to his randy neighbour, but his one true love is his waif-like teenage girlfriend Inez (Mercedes Maxwell).

His arch-nemesis and psychotic pantomime villain of the piece is racist local cop Tom (Jeremy St. James), who is obsessed with Adam and his hot single mum. We also meet a New Age sound healer, a weed-smoking policeman, a burger joint waitress and various other artsy characters, all with a story to tell.

The small town is spiced up by the arrival of ‘Marfa Girl’, an unnamed, free-spirited artist who believes in free love – though only with uncircumcised Hispanic men – played by Austin native and art history student Drake Burnette.

If this interview is anything to go by, Burnette essentially plays herself in the film, spouting pearls of wisdom such as:

“if people fucked more there would be less wars”

“have you ever realised that when a guy is promiscuous he’s a player, but when a girl sleeps around she’s a slut”

“immigrants are just people”

and

“like, trying to deflect any competitive vibes with a vibe of, like, creative equality in the moment.”

Unsurprisingly, she also plans to bed Adam, but tells him she will wait for him to reach age of consent – provided he “has mastered the clitoris” by this time.

It’s a love-it-or-hate-it kind of film, and most of the reviewers have hated it.

But do head along if you’re into the idea of skinny teenagers wearing Converse and emo haircuts, full frontal nudity, graphic scenes of sex, drugs and rock & roll, anti-establishment aphorisms spoken in shrill Texan twangs, and faded desert landscapes reminiscent of Levi’s adverts.

See also:

Proof, in pictures and words, that David Bowie is the TS Eliot of our time
Generation Y problems solved: I’m overeducated for my job and slowly going stupid

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