LAFF 2015: WHAT LOLA WANTS

Lola (Sophie Lowe) in What Lola Wants.

Bad parenting

By Miranda Inganni

It requires a good 20 or so minutes to get used to the teeth-gritting/whispering dialogue delivery in writer-director Rupert Glasson's What Lola Wants; but once you do, you will be glad you toughed it out.

After faking her own kidnapping, Lola (Sophie Lowe) has run away from her Hollywood celebrity parents in hopes of making it to Mobile, Alabama. Somewhere along the way, in a dusty, desert diner she comes across Marlo (an excellent Beau Knapp), a slick, young pickpocket, escaping his own demonic mom (played to the  twisted hilt by Dale Dickey). The two quickly find that they are more than compatible -- having sexy times and their own crime spree across the southern desert. Marlo soon figures out whom Lola is, and that there is a million dollar reward for her safe return. He must decide if he wants to save his tail or hers. At any given moment, however, if spoiled (or is it desperate?) Lola doesn’t get what she wants, she can simply start screaming that she is being held by her captor.

Reminescent of films like Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, Terrence Malick's Badlands, and even Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, the very-impressive What Lola Wants is hyper-stylized both in the dialogue and the images. The film is wound tight and highly detailed -- thanks in large part to Glasson, cinematorapher Eric Leach and art director Monique Dias.