Everyone’s experience of high school includes something they wish they hadn’t done. It’s much easier to reflect back on what that might have been as an adult; you have more distant to consider the impact and meaning of a moment or relationship that might not have problematic or regrettable at the time. For some, there’s a great deal of regret from a repeated pattern of behavior that had an undeniable effect on their lives. With time, humor can also be found in deeply disturbing events, and Good Girl Jane does that exceptionally well.
Sarah Elizabeth Mintz describes her directorial debut (she also wrote the screenplay) as loosely based on her own life but with considerable liberties taken and modifications made...
Her protagonist Jane (Rain Spencer) has recently transferred from another school after being a victim of cruel bullying, and she is struggling to find friends in her new environment. The group that does pull her in is eclectic and prone to frequent drug and alcohol use. She becomes enamored with Jamie (Patrick Gibson), an Irish drug dealer with a certain charm.
Yes, this kind of story has been told many times before, but there is something vividly fresh in this particular telling. Jane’s unhappiness stems from the lack of attention her mother (Andie MacDowell) and fleeting distracted time with her father. Her new friend crowd accepts her for who she is, an important change from her previous school, and she also spends most of her time with them high on substances that pull her away from the misery of reality and into a wondrous escape.
Mintz and her terrific lead Spencer establishes themselves as filmmakers to watch here. The absence of social media places this story firmly in the past but there's a timeliness to this film even as its grounded in a particular moment (the mid 2000s). Jane’s journey is one that many will relate to and others won’t be able to imagine, but it’s told in such a fascinating, engaging, and often entertaining way that all audiences should find it worthwhile. B+
Good Girl Jane makes its world premiere in the US Narrative Competition at the 2022 Tribeca Festival.