Gia (1998)

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Gia was unbelievably good. It's both haunting and inspirational. And in my opinion, it holds Angelina Jolie's best acting performance.I think the writer and the director stayed honest to everything they knew about Gia. They went all the way and smashed though many taboos including promiscuous sex, homosexuality and drugs. They didn't censor important details in order to play safe. And Jolie was so brave for taking this role. She completely absorbed the character so much so that you feel her baring her soul as you watch. The sheer honesty in the performance was magnificent. Mercedes Ruehl's acting was also impeccable. She didn't overdo anything but she was just as true to the character as Jolie was.Mature, daring, audacious. No sugar-coating, no romantic clichés. This is what a good movie looks like.

This is by far the most Underrated Film of all time at my age... I'm 28. That is all I want to say. I really looked for this movie because of Angelina Jolie. After Girl, Interrupted, I just had to see this. No one else could have played it better than Angie.People are complaining because of the story and the drug theme, they can't understand it's based on a TRUE story so that's what it is. Goodness! Underrated... underrated.... UNDERRATED. Great performance by Jolie, as always.

One of the best performances of Angelina Jolie's career, especially since this is her first really big role that brought her a lot of attention. Prior to this she did Hackers with Jonny Lee Miller, but that didn't do that much for her name value in Hollywood. Jolie totally draws your attention to her character like you normally don't see.The story follows model Gia Garangi from the late 1970's when she started her modeling career until the mid 1980's when she succumbed to AIDS. Along the way she got addicted to serious drugs such as cocaine and heroine. The story of Gia is truly not your usual run of the mill back story about a former supermodel.

Well, I did not know Gia Carangi before I watch this movie. Now, I know her partial bio and how she looked like in reality. Choosing Angelina Jolie was a brilliant idea. she is so illustrious and glamorous that can well depict all the beauty and glamor Gia had. she might have even surpassed the true thing based on images I saw from the true Gia. Well, the movie depicts the viewpoint of several closest people to Gia: her mother, her girlfriend and colleague, her boyfriend and a later friend, and her photographer (or manager maybe). Clearly, everyone of these people want to emphasize their rule in Gia's life and show their own importance to some extent. For example, it is always Gia that asks for her girlfriend love and it is never the opposite. Her girlfriend is depicted as very wise , kind, forgiving, and willful opposite to Gia's insecure, addict, turbulent and immature personality in the relationship. In several occasions Gia begs for love or forgiveness from her girlfriend. Similarly, her mother portrays herself as a way that Gia begs her not to go home and leave her. She goes to her mother whenever in trouble. How accurate is that? We have seen the disaster of over- protective mothers as depicted by Darren Arnofsky in black swan. Given that Gia is dead and can not correct made up and inaccurate and biased stuff, I guess this is the best material the director had to make the movie.Still, there are some things that all these people tend to agree on which makes them true with high probability. Gia was a very active, energetic, and straightforward girl. Despite these traits, she was very fragile personally and strongly dependent on close friends. She needed a lot of attention and affection specially from her mother and girlfriend. This is shown through her emotional scenes when her mother or girlfriend want to leave her or when her manager is dying. She is addicted to heroine and gets infected by aids through a used needle. she died at 26. Her mother mentions that when she died and they tried to lift her to take for burial part of the flesh on her back sort of fell to the bed. That sounds terrible and even horrible. I have heard of crack victims dying like that but not aids victims. Some nice quotes from the movie. When the photographer takes several pictures of the three girls behind the chain he says "ok! lets stop photography and make some art now! lose the clothes, keep the chain!". This sentence is very nice. Two of the girls leave immediately. Gia's response is also amazing. pointing to the girl that later became her girlfriend she says "I will stay if she does!". Another, rather sad, quote is when she learns she is infected with aids. she tells her then friend and previous boyfriend "God has some nice plans for me, but not in this world". As another observation, she always seems to be short of money while she should be making a lot in the show business. she asks both her mother and girlfriend for money in the movie. the funniest is when her boyfriend visits and she is mad because she thinks someone stole her money. Then she offers her ex-boyfriend to have sex with him for money. This part reminded me of Tara Reid in The Big Lebowski when she tells Jeff Bridges "I'll suck your cock for a thousand dollars" and then pointing to his servant she says "he can't watch though or he should pay a hundred". Another final point about this movie is Angelina's brazen poses in nude and flashing her breasts in several scenes. I guess Brad Pitt is not very proud of that but I should hail Angelina and say "good going girl! keep up all the good work!you are just so damn beautiful!". After all, the circle of drug addiction, depression, and disentangling of life is a trait of those actors, singers, models, etc that come to fame pretty soon and become globally popular at a young age. I guess Gia's story is more dramatic because it ended with her death at the young age of 26. Besides her pictures on magazine covers, her short life story will stay with us forever through this movie made in her memory.