American Girl, directed by Jordan Brady, is presumably an answer to American Beauty (1999). Whereas American Beauty portrays the boredom of antiseptic middle class suburban life, American Girl is about a dysfunctional family among poor whites. Big John Grubb (played by Chris Mulkey), who killed two men during a fight, is serving a life sentence at Pendleton State Prison. His wife Madge (played by Michelle Forbes) doubtless married him when she was young before she acquired skills for a job beyond the minimum wage level. She is frustrated because she must rear two daughters and a son, and she takes out her frustrations on her children, who in turn do not get along. The family lives together in a rented mobile home somewhere on the edge of town. The film most focuses on the youngest daughter Rena (played by Jena Malone), who plays the title role. She has been having sex with a schoolchum, who hides the affair, but ultimately she becomes pregnant. Carrying a child, Rena remembers her own childhood, when Big John read children’s stories to her, so she begs Madge to attend the annual Pendleton picnic so that she can meet her father and tell him the good news. Madge, however, has not been to the picnic for years; she has been faking postcards from Big John to Rena, thus giving her the impression that he misses her. Nevertheless, Madge agrees to attend the picnic, and the entire family drives to Pendleton for the day. But everything possible goes wrong. Brother Jay (played by Brad Renfro), who earlier masturbates while eyeing a picture of a male athlete, appears gay to his father as well as to another prisoner. The prisoner tries to seduce Jay, but the action goes no farther than a kiss on the lips. Sister Barbie (played by Alicia Witt) has sex with her dad during the picnic, a scene spied from the corner of a window by Jay and the prisoner. The prisoner then blackmails Barbie into getting on her hands and knees and simulating a pig, a humiliation observed by many at the picnic. Madge, upset to learn that her husband has been having sex with other women during the annual picnics, lashes out at him. Does Rena get support from her dad, since he will become a grandfather in due course? At first yes, but later he recommends an abortion. At one point Big John gets violent, a prison guard restrains him, and Big John lands on Rena, who then miscarries and leaves the picnic in a rage. Ultimately, Jay moves to San Francisco to become a chef, while the rest of the family moves far enough away so that they will never again attend the annual Pendleton picnic. American Girl, in short, is a noir film, but is too full of distrust, narcissism, profanity, sadness, and violence to get the apparent points across that poor whites are often trapped in a culture of poverty and that the middle class problems of American Beauty are nothing in comparison. MH