31 Performances Ripe for Rediscovery (5) Jennifer Jason Leigh in GEORGIA (WITH A GUEST CONTRIBUTION FROM J.D. LAFRANCE)

"Poor little girl,

ran away for good.

I try to explain why she won't say a thing..

Sad, sad thing,

I'm so far away now.

How can I say why she won't talk at all?

She holds a deck of cards.

She wants to be alone.

'I've been very ill, I've tried waking up.

Now I want to be alone."

-John Doe, Exene Cervenka, "Poor Girl", 1983-

It happened around 1991, around the time of Rush, when Jennifer Jason Leigh went from being one of America's most talented young actors and became some kind of supernatural force of nature...the likes of which cinema only sees every other decade or so.  For a five year period or so Leigh delivered a series of performances that rivaled any seen in American film history from Brando in the fifties to De Niro and Pacino in the seventies to Rourke in the eighties.  Not all the films were great but when Leigh was given a suitable role in this period the results were electrifying and unforgettable.

There were several performances Jennifer Jason Leigh has given in her now four decade career that I could have chosen for this series.  If I had to pick her absolute greatest role I would say that few actors in cinema have ever delivered a performance as truly touched by genius as her work in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994) but I had to go for her work in the crushing Georgia (1995), not only for personal reasons but because the thing that blows me away so much about her work as the heartbreaking Sadie Flood is that it is a creation that comes entirely from the heart and soul of Jennifer Jason Leigh, whereas she had a real-life basis with Dorothy Parker.  

I've never seen anything quite like Jennifer Jason Leigh in Georgia.  Her work is an unbelievably original and unique creation.  It's as though she was able to take all of those X albums we listened to in the eighties and transform them into this performance...all those haunted, lonely and strung-out characters in those songs (how fitting that John Doe shares the screen with her here) come to life in Leigh's performance in Georgia and it is spellbinding to watch.  It's a crushing performance to watch as well...if Bridget Fonda represents the wonderful vibrancy of my twenties, then Leigh is my dark place.  Memories that are hard but necessary.  

I knew that the great J.D. Lafrance, who runs the always unstoppable Radiator Heaven, admired Jennifer Jason Leigh as much as I do so I was thrilled when he agreed to write me up a piece for this series.  Thanks so much to J.D. for this wonderful piece and VIVA Jennifer Jason Leigh!

-Jeremy Richey, 2012-

J.D. Lafrance on Jennifer Jason Leigh in Georgia, written for Moon in the Gutter in 2012.

Georgia was a very personal, passion project for actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, whose mother, Barbara Turner, produced the film and wrote the screenplay. Georgia depicts the tempestuous relationship between two sisters, both of whom are singers with Leigh playing Sadie, the younger, less talented one, and Mare Winningham playing the older, more successful one. The film is rich with characterization as it explores the complex relationship between two siblings. Leigh delivers a truly fearless performance as she actually sings in the film, unafraid to play someone who makes up what she lacks for in talent with passion. 

At one point, she sings a cover of Elvis Costello’s “Almost Blue” in a raspy whisper that is mesmerizing to watch and then sings backup for a band terribly, screeching her way through a song. It really takes a lot of guts to put yourself out there like Leigh does, not just in the music scenes but also off-stage in the way she relates (or doesn’t) to those around her. As always, the actress fully inhabits the role and it starts with her look, adopting raccoon-eye makeup and a perpetually disheveled appearance that represents her messy life.

Leigh’s gutsy performance culminates in an intense performance of Van Morrison’s “Take Me Back” that seems to go on forever (in a good way) as we see Sadie at her most vulnerable. This sequence encapsulates her character perfectly – all ambition and passion with no talent. She tries so hard that your heart really goes out to her despite being a painfully awful singer. It is this scene that really divided critics and fans of Leigh but I’ve always found it powerful and real with a rawness that is rare. 

While Georgia belongs to Leigh, she is a gracious performer, allowing others to take center stage while she supports them. Sadie is just one of those people that eventually rubs everyone the wrong way whether it be her sister, her manager or her husband. She is one of the many damaged characters Leigh has excelled at playing over the years and perhaps the most fascinating. She runs the emotional spectrum in a performance that is among her very best. By the end of the film you really feel like you’ve gone on a journey with Sadie and seen her through ups and downs. The film ends very much as it began with each sister living their own very different life, leaving us to wonder what might happen to Sadie as she continues to pursue her dreams.

Operation Screenshot (Films of the Nineties) David Cronenberg's eXistenZ (1999)

Sorry, Your Party is Dead: Jennifer Jason Leigh in Eyes of a Stranger (1980)

Mostly remembered for its terrific Tom Savini makeup effects as well as being the debut feature for the tremendous Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ken Wiederhorn’s The Eyes of a Stranger is at times as generic as its title, but it’s both stylish and entertaining and Slasher enthusiasts should absolutely seek it out.
Wiederhorn has mainly worked in television for the past couple of decades, but genre fans will mostly know him for his strangely effective 1977 debut as a writer and director, Shock Waves, as well as for 1988’s Return of the Living Dead Part II. With Eyes of a Stranger, his one entry in the early eighties Slasher craze, Wiederhorn shows himself as a competent and occasionally stylish director well aware of what genre fans would want from a stalk and slash film in 1980. He also offers up a sly and sometimes surprising tongue-in-cheek attitude in the film as well, as his own Shock Waves is playing on one of the victim’s televisions at one point and one of Savini’s most legendary films, George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, also comes into play during the film.







Scripted by Friday the 13th Veteran Ron Kurtz, with assistance from an Eric L. Bloom, Eyes of a Stranger details a string of bloody murders and rapes by a serial killer, whose hook is a prank phone call before his attacks, and a local female news-anchor who becomes obsessed with stopping him. There’s nothing too out of the ordinary here and Eyes of a Stranger can rightly be looked upon as a hodgepodge of earlier and mostly better Slasher films, but it moves along at a brisk pace and doesn’t outstay its welcome in its 90 minute running time.



















Starring television favorites Lauren Tewes as daring anchorwoman Jane Harris, John DiSanti as the sleazy killer Stanley and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Jane’s blind sister Tracy, Eyes of a Stranger works best when Wiederhorn pulls out all the exploitation stops, as he is unable to build any true tension with the film. Bloody and filled with no small amount of nudity from its attractive cast of victims, Eyes of a Stranger features pretty much every element that Slasher critics love to pick on and, of course, it’s those same elements that has made it a minor fan favorite over the years.











Legendary (yes, I have no problem calling her that) Jennifer Jason Leigh not surprisingly provides the film’s best performance. Just eighteen when she filmed Eyes of a Stranger, Leigh is already showing traces of the qualities that would go on to make her one of the most fearless and consistently brilliant actors of her generation. Eyes of a Stranger might be a minor and not totally successful film but it will always have a place in film history as the big screen introduction to Leigh, who had only appeared in television up to this point.












Jennifer Jason Leigh’s introduction aside, the best thing about Eyes of a Stranger are the bloody make-up effects by Tom Savini. Produced by the company that handled the original Friday the 13th, that Savini had made so memorable, Eyes of a Stranger benefits at every turn due to his involvement. While there is nothing here as groundbreaking or as shocking as Savini’s work on films of the same era like Maniac, The Prowler and The Burning, the effects for Eyes of a Stranger are instantly recognizable and never less than very effective.
Eyes of a Stranger, like many of its Slasher counterparts from the era, was heavily censored upon its release. Missing well over five-minutes of Savin’s unsettling effects, Wiederhorn’s film was extremely neutered for its big-screen run. Once only available in a complete version courtesy of an Australia VHS copy, the current Region 1 DVD from Warner Brothers (part of their Twisted Terror Collection) is thankfully uncut with a fairly solid widescreen transfer that shows off the film's at times very striking cinematography. No extras are offered, but having the cut footage reinstated is honestly extra enough. While far from being one of the great early eighties Slasher film, Eyes of a Stranger is an enjoyably sleazy offering that hits more often than it misses. I dig it.