I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Sorry, this movie sucks

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

If you don't believe that "certain" modelling agencies are, in fact, recruiting naive, young girls (as young as 12) for the sole purpose of prostitution, then watch "Girl Model" and you just may change your viewpoint on that matter.My 2 biggest beefs regarding this 2011 documentary is that I felt its editing was way too uneven and (most importantly) that it just didn't dig deep enough into its investigation of modelling agencies (that are located as far away as Siberia) whose calculating "scouts" are recruiting 13-year-old girls (who are, sadly enough, being treated like disposable goods).But, with that said - "Girl Model" certainly did paint a very negative picture of the modelling business. This, of course, is a business that continues to thrive today even though it, unfortunately, lacks basic labour protection for the girls that are hired.All-in-all - I thought that "Girl Model" was well-worth a view.

When most people think of models they think of glitz and glamour and beautiful women. Girl Model flips that image on it's head and shows the real ugly side of the modeling industry. This documentary follows Nadia, a shy and sweet natured thirteen year old from rural Siberia. She wins a modeling contract and gets to go to Japan. She hopes her work as a model will support her family. She is "discovered" by American model scout Ashley. This documentary has no shortage of creeps and crazies but Ashley takes the cake. A former model herself, Ashley travels around Russia looking for the youngest and freshest faces to send to some creep in Japan that calls himself "Messiah". It's basically 1 step short of all out child trafficking. Ashley say's she feels bad about it but that's kind of hard to believe. She seems to enjoy living in her Connecticut mansion complete with creepy anatomically correct baby dolls, specialty made boxes for storing creepy fetish photos of teenage girl's feet and mounds of tape titled "Russian Teens" a little too much. As a young model she made creepy tapes of herself. I hope for her sake she was on drugs. Later on she gets fibroids and cysts and act's like she's pregnant. Umm OK.. Personally, I think Ashley should hold off on her next trip on the trans-siberian railway and instead check herself into the closest mental hospital stat. I'd feel bad for her if she wasn't so casually evil. As for Nadia, she lives in a tiny apartment in Japan. For a while she has a roommate, Madlen but she gets sent home for gaining an inch on her waist. She doesn't have any sort of chaperon and she doesn't speak English or Japanese. Nadia, barely gets work in Japan and in the end leave the country $2000 in debt to her agency. Her story isn't unique. Unfortunately as long as the fashion industry demands super young models and young girls from poor countries like Russia are willing to take these risks, and psychopaths like Ashley are willing to profit from these practices nothing will change for young girls like Nadia.

David Redmon and Ashley Sabin's Girl Model is a lot like Lee Hirsch's directorial debut in the documentary world, Bully, which came out earlier this year. Both films are well done and do a mostly efficient job at drumming up awareness to their subject, but both leave things undeveloped and occasionally have a pending "half-baked" feeling to them. While I thoroughly enjoyed Bully, mainly for its message, its tone, and its deep stories told by the victims with sincerity and bravery, such topics as the reason why kids bullied others and interviews with the actual bullies or their parents were mysteriously absent.We begin by meeting our main model, a thirteen year old Russian model named Nadya Vall. She is moderately tall, with pale skin, and a feeble body thanks to little food consumption. She has thinned herself down to amazingly slender shape only so she can be trafficked all across the United States, Siberia, and Japan to help her family through financial trouble. The picture opens with a beauty judge going through a lineup of girls, announcing their flaws to another woman as if they are public information. The dehumanization he brings to these women, as the looked of unadulterated failure rests in their eyes is hurtful to watch. The same man later tells us that three things you need to be a successful model are "grace, good communication skills, and manners." You'll also need a rhino's skin and a high level of self-esteem, but those perks come omitted from the modelling handbook I presume.One modelling agency representative named Noah states that he loves the job of a model agent for the sole purpose that he feels he's giving these women a chance at greatness and an opportunity to grow as individuals. This is only one of the most likely hundreds of contradictions in the modelling world; you're told to be an individual, but to have your flaws nit-picked in public, as if there's no element of privacy at all, and to be told what to eat, what to weigh, and how to go about being liked in an industry dominated by ego, greed, and narcissism, it sounds like the gospel that preaches against human individuality.The film features arguably one of the strangest, yet most soothing cinematographic elements in quite sometime. The entire film seems to encapsulate or mirror a dream sequence, with very glossy atmosphere, smoothly gray and faint images, and many, many scenes with very simple yet very divine direction.However, this soft approach not only affects the film's look but the film's approach to the subject matter. In seventy eight minutes, Girl Model is a fine documentary, but it lacks examination on the larger scale issue at hand here and takes the passive, almost constructive criticism tactic on the modelling industry. It remains too safe, and has numerous times where anger and emotional weight could be applied, but cops out in favor of a more calm, controlled direction. Perhaps viewers would rather watch a calm, controlled look on the modelling industry, but I occasionally felt restless and a little unmoved when the film clearly could've invited social criticism into play, but unfortunately, took the safer, more emotionally sustained route.Starring: Nadya Vall. Directed by: David Redmon and Ashley Sabin.

Former model and now jaded scout (read: human trafficker), Ashley Arbaugh, reveals the ugly truth that there is no glamour in modeling.With incredibly questionable morals on display from just about everyone, from the 13 year old Siberian child's mother pushing her daughter into modelling (read: slavery), through to the curious agency owner who knows that there is no money to be made on these girls who stay in Japan for three weeks only to return home with $2k worth of debt for the family (along with a nice mentally scarred teenager).Ashley, the soulless globetrotting star of this film, is self-indulgent beyond belief in her self- pity, which, if you try really hard to push past her shocking, confronting can-I-slap-her exterior, you might just see a a raw and damaged woman. A template that you can easily imagine these 13 year old girls are now going to grow into themselves.Yet another awesome example of documentary kicking fiction's butt in the creation of monstrous characters, and nothing says this better than the agent (read: child catcher) that enthusiastically talks about bringing happiness and wealth to all of the girls and their families, and how this mantra of helping others must exist because he had been a bad man in a previous life. Classic.Watch out for one of cinema's most uncomfortable scenes when Ashley drops in to say hello to the two models in their rather compact apartment (or shall we say 'cell').