Review: This is quite a deep drama about a young girl (Lawrence), who looks after her young sister while her drug taking mum is getting pimped out by her boyfriend. The movie follows her struggle to keep it together while her mum is holding parties in her house with various men coming in and out of her house. She's also an inspiring basketball player who wants to make a better life for herself but her day to day life at home, with hardly anything to eat, really gets her down. The acting from a young Jennifer Lawrence, was great and she made her character seem very realistic. The storyline was quite deep and emotional and you can't help but feel for these young girls who really don't get any love from there mum. I didn't quite get the story about Chloe Grace Moretz but she also put in a great performance, at such a young age. Its a shame that you don't get to visually see how Agnes's life turned out, especially as it's based on a true story, but it's a watchable, small movie which got its point across well. Watchable! Round-Up: I think that the main problem with this film is that we have seen this type of story, many times before. The main draw to the movie, for me, is the fact that that Jennifer Lawrence is in it and I haven't really seen her play a role like this before. It does show that the girl can really act and that she can do other roles away from the famous Katniss in the Hunger Games. Although the movie was only made 7 years ago, Lawrence and Moretz look extremely young and it's amazing how far they have come since this movie. Selma Blair, whose been in the Hellboy franchise and Legally Blonde, played the drug taking mum quite well and she also had some emotional alongside Lawrence. Anyway, the movie is a decent watch but it's quite predictable, with no frills.I recommend this movie to people who are into their emotional dramas about a young girl whose trying to find a way out because her mums on drugs and gets pimped out by her boyfriend. 4/10

This is one of the story in the life of Lori Petty, and I never knew how much of a difficult childhood she had. It's basically a depressing and yet well acted and well made movie to some degree about girls struggles. Mainly because of a bad mother and not a very good environment to be growing up in. Now the negative aspect of this movie is that, it seemed to drag in a lot of scenes. In fact some of the scenes actually seemed quite pointless. Basically the plot is about a tough girl who is also smart, but don't always make the right decision having to take care of her sisters as well as overcome her struggles with the environment. The plot seemed all over the place at times and got boring during sometimes as well. This is not a near perfect movie but it isn't as terrible as some people claim it to be. The ending was okay though.6/10

Not to long ago I took a class in literary nonfiction. For that class, I wrote an essay about my relationship with my father. My professor made a very useful comment that anyone who attempts to write about their life should heed: "Maybe you're too close to the material. You should give it some time." I wish Lori Petty had taken that class and heard that advice.Petty obviously had some trouble separating herself from this story, but that is what a film is supposed to be, a story. If Petty had just wanted to recount a tragic day in her childhood, then she should have made a documentary. Since this is supposed to be a film every scene should advance the story in someway. That was one of the things that irritated me about this movie. It dragged on with all these unnecessary scenes that did nothing to advance the plot. Why did we need to see Agnes playing a pick up game of basketball? Why did we need to see Agnes at the Burger joint? Why are there so many scenes of Cammie at the bar? My other problem with this film is its protagonist. Agnes is clearly smart and savvy. Savvy enough to make sure that her little sisters don't see her mother's john, but not smart enough to know better than to make out with her mother's pimp/lover. Trailers for this film described the pimp as a father figure, but who makes out with their father? I also didn't understand why Agnes had Bee leave the poker house when she saw that the degenerates had shown up, but didn't leave herself. She had a basketball to go to why was she hanging around? These decisions and Agnes' obnoxious, chatty, and attention seeking personality make it hard to like her as a character. Also, I would have been more interested in what happened to Agnes and the girls immediately after the ending instead of some vague reference to her leaving for New York years later.

The abrupt way the film cut off just as it was starting to take form, made it the worst ending to a movie I've seen in a long time! And, we go to the matinée most every wk end, rent & watch a lot of movies. The acting from Selma, Bokeem and Jennifer Lawrence is truly convincing & professional in this film. Also, acting by the children & teens are exceptionally well. Unfortunately, it couldn't save the film considering this isn't one of those films we could sit back, relax & enjoy. In most parts, the script seemed incomplete & chaotic, such as, forcing viewers to put in work second guessing exactly what roles certain characters played in the main character's life(Agnes), who was who & what was the point of a few interesting scenes w/ no outcome(which eventually made them irrelevant). That caused the film to drag on more often than not. It was like trying to use your own imagination while listening to someone in a drunk stupor (and depressed), tell you about 3 days & fifteen minutes out of 150 chapters of their unstable, hectic life. Nearly as bad was the way it transitioned from one scene to the next & careened from plot to plot, such as the connection we never make to the scenes w/ the youngest sister(Chloe Moretz). Matter of fact, we aren't aware Agnes & Cammie are sisters or even know one another until Agnes picks 2 sisters up instead of 1 off an overpass at night, and they drive off five min before the ending! None of us could figure out if the boring scenes w/ a little girl "always" in a complete different setting were flashbacks to when Agnes was a little girl, or her mother. Lastly, if watching a 13 yr old **** tease & bust slob with a black pimp is interesting to you, and you can believe he allows her to sit across from him & call his peers n*(ggers)during their conversations, than forces himself on her 10 minutes before the movie cuts off, and unlike other 'based on true event" films...we can't research what happens after or to other characters...along with all the above, than this miserable movie is right up your alley. Enjoy! because I doubt they'll be another made like it (thank God)