Georgia (1995 film)

Georgia is a 1995 American independent film starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Mare Winningham. In the film, Leigh played Sadie Flood, a punky barroom singer who has a complicated relationship with her older sister, Georgia, played by Winningham. Georgia is a successful, talented and well-adjusted folk music singer and a happily married mother of two. Sadie is passionate but self-destructive and untalented. While she seeks fame, she destroys herself through drug abuse.
"Georgia" won the Grand Prix of the Americas Award for Best Picture at the Montreal World Film Festival. In addition, Leigh received Best Actress honors at the Montreal World Film Festival and the New York Film Critics Circle for her work in the film, and Winningham received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Academy Awards and from the Screen Actress Guild.
Production.
The film was a highly personal project for Jennifer Jason Leigh. Leigh's mother, Barbara Turner, wrote the screenplay; Leigh and Turner co-produced it along with director Ulu Grosbard; and Mare Winningham, a longtime friend who had been Leigh's camp counselor during their teen years, co-starred.
The music in the film consists of 13 songs; to create a realistic effect, Leigh and Winningham were both filmed singing live. The 13 songs included covers of songs by Gladys Knight & the Pips, Elvis Costello and Van Morrison. In the talked-about centerpiece of the film, Sadie drunkenly performs a raw, grueling cover of Morrison's "Take Me Back" in a ragged Janis Joplin-style gut howl at an AIDS benefit concert.
John Doe of the band X played a supporting role and performed as a member of Sadie's band.
Release and reception.
"Georgia" was screened in the "Un Certain Regard" section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.
"Georgia" was released in the U.S. on December 8, 1995. It received a positive critical reception. Susan Wloszczyna of "USA Today" described the film as "a painful though sadly humorous portrait of sisterhood". Roger Ebert called the film "a complex, deeply knowledgeable story about a truly lost soul and her downward spiral" in his 3.5/4-star review. James Berardinelli of "ReelViews" praised it as “a tour de force for Leigh... there are times when it's uncomfortable to watch this performance because it's so powerful”, adding “"Georgia" doesn't possess an amazingly original narrative, but what distinguishes this picture is the depth of the characters and the amazing power with which the two leads breathe life into them.” Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote that “Leigh’s exceptional performance tears you apart… we’ve never seen anything like it before”, adding that ""Georgia" is not an easy film, but in the American independent arena, it outperforms everything in sight.”
Jennifer Jason Leigh was voted the year's Best Actress by the New York Film Critics Circle and at the Montreal World Film Festival, nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, and was widely predicted to receive her first Oscar nomination for the role. Surprisingly though, it was Mare Winningham who received an Oscar nomination (as well as an Independent Spirit Award and Screen Actors Guild nomination) as Best Supporting Actress, while Leigh was overlooked by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Speaking to "MetroActive" magazine, Winningham said: “I felt incredibly honored and touched to be nominated...But it was hard to be separated from Jennifer, because she was the heart and soul of that film. While we were making the movie, I thought not only that she would get a nomination, but that she would win. I saw the kind of work she was doing. In my mind she will always be the greatest performance of that year, and a lot of other people thought so, too. Meryl Streep grabbed me at the Academy Awards. She said, 'Jennifer should be here!' and I said, 'I know!'”
The film performed poorly at the box office.