“Dirty Beautiful” is the first feature from writer/director Tim Bartell, and it shows the verve of young talent stepping into the spotlight as well as all the jitters that come with it.
It’s one of those classic “write what you know” storylines: aspiring young filmmaker wandering through life. David (an earnest Ricky Mabe) draws storyboards for others instead of working on his own script. He’s a disaster with women, then a challenging one falls into his lap and essentially writes herself into his story as his instant girlfriend.
Jordan Monaghan is the girl, Kat, and she’s one for the books. A homeless party girl/occasional prostitute, Kat moves from man to man, offering sex in exchange for a place to live, money for booze and freedom to be as Kat as she can be. David, being a worrywart pushover, goes along when she literally jumps out of one guy’s car at a stoplight and climbs into his.
Monaghan exudes confidence and stunning narcissism as Kat, a woman who’s seemingly never had responsibilities in life and isn’t ready to start. She sees David as simply a source for resources… at least at first. Slowly, the two start to form a genuine bond.
Of course, it’s threatened by the fact that all Kat wants to do is be drunk all the time – a world into which David soon descends as well. They have a little fun, invading a local kid’s blow-up pool for summertime cool-offs, get rowdy and get into trouble.
You can understand why someone like Kat can actually be a good thing for someone like David … at least in the short term. He’s coasting through life, full of fear and self-loathing, and needs someone to feed his darker emotions in order to strengthen his essential goodness. But in short order Kat’s antics become tiresome, then depressing, then dangerous.
It’s predestined that he toughen up enough to realize he doesn’t need her anymore, and we start to long for that moment to arrive much sooner that it does.
Bartell shows a few interesting narrative tricks. Like the fact that this is one of those movies where the main characters talks to the camera, narrating his own story. Then Kat elbows her way into the frame and starts to offer commentary of her own. Neat idea, better if it had been carried further.
“Dirty Beautiful” is the sort of movie you make as your first movie. It’s not really meant to be taken as a completely realized work on its own, but show off what the cast and filmmakers are capable of.