EMPIRE OF DIRT - Review by The Film Corner's Junior Cub Reporter, 12-Year-Old JULIA KLYMKIW ***** 5-Stars

12-year-old Film Corner Cub Reporter
JULIA KLYMKIW'S ***** review of
EMPIRE OF DIRT

My Keywords To Brainstorm and Investigate the Movie Empire of Dirt:
- Dramatic
- Realistic
- Humorous at times
- Sends an important message
- Women Who Find Themselves

My Summary: Empire of Dirt - A 13 year old girl and her mother have a tough relationship. The mother works as a house cleaner. Cleaning houses is the only income for them. The daughter gets in trouble at school for smoking and the Mother is obviously pretty angry with her. The daughter runs away and hangs out with some other kids who are a bad influence on her and introduce her to inhaling paint out of a paper bag. The girl gets very sick and is taken to the hospital. The mother decides the best idea is for the two of them to take a break from the big city and travel up to the country.
- JJK

EMPIRE OF DIRT ***** 5 Stars
Starring: Cara Gee, Jennifer Podemski, Shaye Eyre
Review By Julia Klymkiw

LENA and PEEKA - Mother and Daughter

I really, really loved this movie and think that all mothers and daughters need to see it. It's such a great story and I related to it so much because I used to live in Kensington Market where the mother and daughter character live and I have the fun of now living in both the city and the country. Even though there are exciting and kind of dangerous things in the city, the country is a place I feel like I belong in, just as strong as I want to be in the city. One of the things this movie shows is how living in both places helps you appreciate both of them.

Empire of Dirt is about a mother (Cara Gee) and her daughter (Shaye Eyre) finding themselves. At the beginning of the movie, Peeka, is only 13 years old and finds herself in a place nobody wants to find themselves in. She finds herself in the hospital where she almost has died after inhaling paint with some bad kids she meets. Peeka's Mother Lena knows what they have to do after she finds out and they both leave the city to take a break in the country.

This is where Peeka meets her grandmother Minerva (Jennifer Podemski). Peeka is angry at her Mom for lying to her. Lena told Peeka that her grandmother was dead. The reason for this is that Lena and Minerva had an argument many years ago when Lena got pregnant with Peeka and Lena ran away to Toronto and never came back. Until now!!! The other crazy thing is that Lena told Peeka her Dad was dead, but sure enough, she finds out her Dad is alive and lives up North where he works as a Policeman.

Peeka gets to meet her Dad, but soon she understands that he will never really be a father to her and even worse than that, she comes to understand that he is going to be married to someone else even though he pretended to like her Mom again.

I really liked the acting in this movie. Everyone felt like real people to me. Minerva was really cool and even though I love both my grandmothers, it was neat how young Minerva was. There is a really nice scene where Minerva shows Peeka photos and tells her stories about the family. I think every kid relates to this kind of thing.

I also liked how Peeka got to meet all the other relatives in her family. This was so realistic for me because I remember visiting Winnipeg and getting to meet all the relatives I had never met before. It was fun meeting aunts, uncles and cousins because when you see them for real it's like they really are for real and not just people you have heard about. For Peeka, it's even more special because she never knew them before and didn't even know they existed.

Peeka's acting is super realistic because I know a lot of girls like her. They wear too much makeup and sometimes hang around with kids they shouldn't. I even understood why Peeka was always made up the way she was because all young girls like to experiment with how they look. I also felt bad for Peeka because things were kind of mixed up and it took a lot out of her to deal with it.

One of the great things about this movie is how Minerva talks about how all people have a spirit animal. She explains how you go into the woods for a long time, get really tired and hungry and then the animal comes to visit you and you get to know who they are. I love animals, so one day it will be cool to meet my own spirit animal. On the farm I live on there are horses, ponies, donkeys, bees and chickens. Even cooler is seeing so many animals coming to visit. I have seen bears, coyotes, wolves, owls and lots of rattlesnakes. Plus a lot more!!! I sure do wonder what my spirit animal will be.

One of the things that happens in the movie is when Peeka's Mom Lena meets her spirit animal, but when she does, something terrible happens and it's like the animal was trying to warn her. When Lena finds out her old boyfriend really doesn't want her anymore, she gets really sad and starts to drink alcohol. Most of all, I think she gets drunk because she thinks that she was a bad mother and how she has made so many mistakes. I don't really think this is true. She's a great Mom and things just happen in life that are not as big a deal as you think they might be. The worst thing she does is to drive while she is drunk. It's really very suspenseful too because she is driving fast and has one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand is holding a bottle of booze. She has to stop, though, because she sees a wolf on the road in front of her.

This is her spirit animal. It is standing so still and looks so beautiful. She gets out of the truck for a closer look, but when the wolf runs away, she turns around quickly and walks onto the road in front of a speeding truck. It hits her and you think she will probably die. This is very realistic too because up north so many guys are driving their trucks on the road so fast and like they're total crazy people. When Lena gets hit, it's like the truck comes out of nowhere and let me tell you, up north this is a very realistic thing.

Here is the part of the movie I thought was really beautiful. Even though she is hit by the truck and hurt very badly, it's the thing that makes the family come closer together. It's like the spirit animal was trying to warn Lena that something bad would happen and it did, but even though it did, it was the thing that kept the family from drifting apart.

I do not mind saying that I felt like crying a bit here, but not because I was sad, but that Peeka, Lena and Minerva realize that having each other is the most important thing in the world.

This is why I love the movie. Everything in it seems true. I see a lot of movies, but this one made me feel like I was watching things, people and places I knew. Mostly though, I think it's a great movie because it shows how having people around you that love you is the best.

See this movie. Especially if you are a girl or a woman. There are not a lot of movies about girls that are this realistic.

"Empire of Dirt" is in limited theatrical release via Mongrel Media following its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival 2013.

To Read The Alternate View - The Film Corner features a *** EMPIRE OF DIRT review by the Cub Reporter's Grumpy Daddy, Greg Klymkiw.
Click HERE To Read It.