filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

uwsupergirl-701-304435 I love Jessica Chastain so I decided to give this movie a try. I had a difficult adolescence so I thought I'd identify with the character. But I should have known-this film was written by men and therefore, the character lacks depth and the edge that a girl who truly went through what this character is portrayed to have dealt with would truly develop. Throughout the movie, older male characters are shown as benefactors rather than victimizers of Jolene, and she is shown as not a confused teenager who out of desperation uses her sexuality and attention from much older adults to survive in otherwise bad circumstances but a horny nymph who sometimes acts robotic but is also seductive and not much of an emotional being. She gets to survive using her sexuality as she's basically raped, and has orgasms, according to this movie. The movie starts with Jolene, at 15, marrying a rather young man named Micky, a sweet and rather awkward man who really does seem to care for her. When the sleazy uncle of the boy takes a predatory interest in Jolene, she finds this appealing and succumbs as a willing participant, which leads to disaster and a series of other adults who find Jolene irresistible and she uses them for her own comfort and survival, which DOES happen in real life, but not without much worse consequences generally. She enjoys art and art is another tool employed to try to make the perversion of this teenager as more legit. This movie portrays the systematic exploitation of a young girl as no big deal and not damaging or hurtful to this young girl- in fact quite the opposite...the writing attempts to show her as "artsy" and steering her own ship instead of a victim who has serious problems. It was only after watching 3/4 of this movie and being disgusted that this continued, that I checked and verified for myself that the writers of this movie were men. Well OF COURSE they were! Who else would write a female lead who has been mistreated by men and had to use her own sexuality with sleazy older men to survive and ENJOYS IT and THRIVES instead of becoming a broken and sad drug addict or worse. What I ended up taking from the movie is that this is a movie for men (and women) who would do things like the men (and women) in the movie to young girls and justify it as if the girl is enjoying and benefitting from this attention and behavior-a way to live. Jolene is shown as mainly a sexual being, a conquest, and a willing participant in her own abuse and exploitation, but not as a person with many feelings outside of sexuality. Even the "religious guy" is a pig and a rapist. But after being anally raped, and showing a tad distress for A MOMENT, she's fine and happy. Her range of emotions were confined within very shallow male's idea of what it's like to be a female, especially a female who has a history like Jolene's. After years of abuse, she has a child, and is IMMEDIATELY fulfilled and believes in God. Then after being beaten enough shows the fortitude to move on, but just as fast as she found God in her child, she gives up on him and fantasizes about going back someday, embraced by her son now as a movie star. That's redemption? What a load of crap. I found it actually rather disgusting but typical of male-created female lead. Don't waste your time, especially if you care about real stories about the female experience.

kcadogan-56151 Although I don't think this movie was a total miss, it lacked depth in the plot and Jolene, the heroine who we were supposed to root for and adore was too naive to receive all of my sympathy. Jolene is a young and fiery (and unfortunately very naive) girl played by Jessica Chastain in her debut role. While I feel that Chastain made me like this character more, I felt like the character was not strong enough to be the lead in the movie. I never really understood what her motive was or what she was trying to attain - I don't think Jolene ever knew either. The story starts when she is 15, a time I feel like she was truly taken advantage of. In the beginning I did feel very sorry for her as her husband's uncle grabbed her by the waist and pinned her down on his bed. She had my sympathy because she was just a kid who was clearly confused as to what she was feeling. However, she then proceeds to make the exact same mistake over and over again. The movie is literally a depiction of her trusting sketchy men (or woman) that abuse her or treat her poorly and as she gets older I had to wonder how she hadn't learned her lesson by now. The plot for the movie is a good idea, however the execution is too simple. While I see the connection between Jolene's love of being an artist, and all her love interests molding her into their own art project, the way Jolene's different looks are portrayed just comes off as clichés. She starts off as Mickey's 15 year old bride with ribbons and braids in her hair, she then becomes the loony girl in the mental asylum who is again taken advantage of by an adult, upon escaping the mental asylum she becomes a road prostitute before becoming an edgy tattoo artist while working for her tattoo artist/drug dealer boyfriend, she then moves to Las Vegas and becomes a stripper while dating a mobster, she finally finds herself as a career woman, and then a high society woman who is abused by her manic and financially powerful husband. I didn't think there was enough flow from phase to phase, when each lover entered her life she would admit that she didn't feel confident in the decision to be with them but she just did it anyways. Despite the fact that she entered in to so many relationships prior under similar circumstances. Jolene finally has a child with her third husband and admits that "this was the first time I had something that I actually wanted", only to have her child taken away from her due to her checkered past. I wasn't sure if this was supposed to be sending a message that if you keep making the same mistakes over and over you will be condemned for it, or if this was supposed to just make it clear that things with her high society husband were not going to end well. Regardless, I felt it was the most emotional part of the movie and the part I felt the most sympathy for our heroine Jolene. This movie had a fair amount of nudity in it and I thought that took away from the movie, making it seem like a porno. There were a lot of scene where many naked women were shown (but mostly Chastain) and I didn't feel like it was needed. However, I thought it was a good idea in the scenes in which Chastain was being taken advantage of in her younger years. It really makes her feel exposed. The tone of the movie varies a lot throughout. I found it hard to label what kind of movie it was after watching it. It starts off as a steamy hick flick, but then takes a serious turn when Micey commits suicide, Uncle Phil is sentenced to time in prison for statutory rape, and Jolene is sent to a mental asylum where one of the patients slits her wrists with the glass of a mirror. When Jolene escapes the movie gets a little light and funny as a tattoo artist/drug dealer shows her the wild side of life and it is discovered he has another wife. This tone keeps as she moves to Las Vegas and becomes a stripper until her mobster boyfriend is shot. The last bit is a combination of funny and serious and honestly it just seemed like Jolene was taking herself too seriously as she gets asked on a date by the owner of the company she works at. He's an eccentric man who has so many red flags attached to him, it's no wonder Jolene decides to marry him without knowing anything about him or having him know anything about her past. Although in her defense it was entirely his idea to get married before getting to know each other - Jolene still can't say "no" to marrying this man, the crucial mistake she has been making for the rest of the movie. He ends up raping her, getting her pregnant, beating her, and then taking sole custody of the child. She ends up leaving with aspirations of becoming a movie star. And the audience ends up not convinced that Jolene will change her ways, even after her child is taken away from her.

richard-frese Saw "Jolene" today. It's been a long time since I've seen an independent film that was this poorly written. Sorry.Should have at least contracted someone with some screen writing experience to make up for the lack of plot and character development. Don't fret, there are various courses and workshops available at community colleges and various learning institutions that offer assistance in writing screenplays, along with various application software i.e. http://www.moviedraft.com/? gclid=CPXDw7PF6K8CFUHDtgodfjb43A. Not a Fan Rick

Allen Williams This was one of those movies where it doesn't really matter if the story sucks or if the film itself was poorly made. I could care less about any of that stuff because watching Jessica Chastain on screen is just delightful in its own way.The story was alright, although I'm not sure there was an actual story here. All I gathered from the so called plot was that this woman (Jolene) didn't know what to do with herself and just kinda wandered & winged it through life on a daily basis.This movie should have been the female version of "The Truman Show" where the audience can just follow around a clueless human being for no particular reason. This is a wannabe reality show disguised as a feature film and the only thing missing is SNOOKI and that's all there is too it....