[attrition] review: Movie: Clean

[lyger]

Clean
(2004)

Czarina

Clean is a tale of one woman's story of recovery, reclamation, and 
reformation, in spite of the odds, and just about everyone who knows her 
are against her. Clean stars Maggie Cheung: Hero, as Emily Wang, a woman 
who is trying to clean up her life and her act to reclaim the child and 
adult responsibility she abdicated while pursing the party-girl life 
during the 'sex, drugs, rock & roll ' excess era of the 80's. Her party 
partner and boyfriend Lee (James Johnston), who while once well known and 
popular, now finds himself a fading, musician in the fringe rock scene 
whose fame and fanbase has gone the way of the jheri-curl and legwarmers 
of the same epoch.

With no record deal and chances of a comeback evaporating, Lee and Emily 
are reduced to staying in 1/2 star motels while playing in small club gigs 
in and around Canada (-- really scraping the bottom of the barrel). The 
aging Lee is depressed and frustrated as the quality and popularity of his 
work going down faster than a $20 crack whore -- and his friends, pundits, 
and industry insiders all blame and abhor the Courtney Love/Yoko Ono-ish 
Emily for getting him and keeping him hooked on heroin and taking his 
creativity on a downward spiral. Emily, herself a heroin fiend and former 
MTV-esque VJ on French TV occupies herself with partying, fighting with 
Lee, and trying to restore her own career and reputation in the industry.

[...]