Johnny's Girl (1995)

Film Title: Johnny's Girl
Released: May 27, 1995
Directed by: John Kent Harrison
Written by: John Kent Harrison based on the book by Kim Rich
Starring: Treat Williams & Mia Kirshner

Plot: The coming of age tale of a teenage girl and her hustler father in Anchorage, Alaska, circa 1969.

IMDb: 5.9/10
My Score: 2.5/5

Johnny's Girl is a small Canadian film from director John Kent Harrison, who wrote the teleplay based on the memoir of the same name by journalist Kim Rich. The beautiful Mia Kirshner gives an excellent performance as sixteen year old Amy, the new girl in Anchorage, AK, moving from Los Angeles to live with her father. Her mother was a B-movie actress who was committed for years to an asylum for schizophrenia before dying of liver cancer. Treat Williams is Johnny, Kirshner's father and a player in the burgeoning underworld of Anchorage, who runs a gambling den and whorehouse. It is immediately clear that Williams and those in his social circle love Kirshner deeply, so fortunately this isn't one of those movies where the child protagonist is treated like dirt and has to overcome her oppressors. Instead, what unfolds is the love story between a father and daughter where isn't always clear who the mature one is. The performances of these two are the best thing in an almost excruciatingly slow moving film that sanitizes strip clubs and mob violence into family-friendly entertainment. All of these critiques are similar to the ones I had of Harrison's freshman film, Beautiful Dreamers. Both movies deal with some harsh issues with kid gloves, are slow moving and have great performances from the leads. Not an absolute waste of ninety minutes of your time, particularly if you are a fan of either Kirshner or Williams. Gloria Reuben, Shirley Douglas, Jay Brazeau and Barry Pepper co-star. Watch the trailer below or the whole movie here on Hulu.