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On Netflix
In 1987, Juno Temple is the eponymous dirty girl. Danielle screws a lot of boys in her high school and causes a lot of trouble by mouthing off to teachers, other kids and her single mother (Milla Jovovich). She is teamed up with chunky, dumpy and gay Clarke (Jeremy Dozier) for a class project on parenting, using a bag of flour as their baby. While working on their family trees, Danielle reveals that she doesn’t know who her father is. Clarke helps her discover his identity, and she begs Clarke to drive her to Fresno to meet him. At first, he refuses. But then Clarke’s parents (Mary Steenburgen and Dwight Yoakam) figure out that he’s gay and his father tries to beat it out of him, so Clarke steals his dad’s car and picks up Danielle and heads west. Abe Sylvia’s screenplay is at times hysterically funny, and Temple and Dozier are delightful, though the film’s chopping editing makes them less so. There’s a strange confusion between the kids’ fantasies and their lived reality in the film, but once you let that go, it’s a great ride. The lush, pitch perfect production design and the Melissa Manchester-heavy soundtrack help.
