This film presents a fairly accurate portrayal of the chaotic, symbiotic environment of the bar band music scene. If you are looking for a coherent, one-two-three plot and are expecting realism at the same time, forget it. You would be missing the point. Having "been there" and "done that", I can affirm that this movie does a pretty good job at portraying interesting and realistic snapshot views of people in this particular music genre. In addition, this film even goes so far as to attempt realistic discriminations between different types of musicians (e.g., between ones who want to just succeed, ones who just want to play, ones who can't get their lives together enough to make it, starving artists, etc.).
This film initially may seem innocuous and even simplistic to some casual viewers. I must admit that I didn't get much the first time I casually viewed it. "Georgia" is very layered and textural -- the more you stand back and look, the more you can almost reach out and touch it -- but, as with most true art -- one must stand back and really take a look at it to appreciate the many layers. The layers of this particular artwork is done via multiple, sometimes concurrent, relationships, which intermittently share the foreground and the background with some really great music and various elements of the music scene. There is the relationship between Georgia and Sadie -- of course, the most obvious relationship that maintains precedence, but if you spend too much time on this one, you will miss so much. There is the Sadie-Axel layer; the Sadie-Georgia's husband layer; the Sadie-Herman layer; the Sadie-and the music layer; the Sadie-Sadie layer; the Sadie-drugs layer; the Sadie-father layer; on and on. All these relationships involving Jennifer J.L's character puts a lot of pressure on J.J.L, and I think she brings it about beautifully. I don't find her "overacting" in any scene -- the only "overacting" that is done is done by Sadie, not by J.J.L.
J.J.L. has rarely disappointed me in her character portrayals. I have always found her an interesting sort of actress: she does not have that obvious physical "stand out" star quality about her, but more of a quiet, well-played character actress, genuine star quality about her. I think she, along with the other actors in this movie, did a terrific job with very difficult material (about a very unusual and difficult, but interesting, lifestyle), and this movie calls out to me to watch it every time it plays on my satellite service.
This movie should not be judged along with "standards". It is a rare piece of filmwork, and should be judged entirely on its own standalone merits.
