At age 15, Chloë Grace Moretz is now right in the center of the child/adult Venn diagram. Pretty soon we’ll have to accept that she really is a young woman, but for now, it’s slightly discomfiting to see her in the jailbait short shorts and tiny halter tops she wears in Derick Martini’s Hick. Even in the old days, girlhood went by in a flash, and most contemporary parents will tell you that today those years of innocence — or at least perceived innocence — are even more compressed. Plus, some girls just move faster than others: Moretz’s character in Hick is an unhappy 13-year-old named Luli who doesn’t yet know how to use her sexual allure, though she’s vaguely aware that she’s got some. She can’t wait to grow up and get the hell away from her tiny, repressive Nebraska town and her heedless parents (played by Juliette Lewis and Anson Mount), and her urgency gives the movie whatever momentum it has.
Which, unfortunately, isn’t much. Hick, which is based on Andrea Portes’ 2007 novel (she and Martini co-wrote the screenplay), walks the jittery line between being exploitative and too sensitive, and while it’s probably a relief that it tips more toward the latter, the movie also seems a bit unclear in its motives. In an early scene, we see Luli testing out the revolver — it’s a Smith & Wesson .45, she’s quick to correct anyone who merely calls it a “gun” — her uncle has just given her for her 13th birthday. She stands in her bedroom, dressed in a T-shirt and multi-colored frilly panties, her hair gloriously tousled in a Bardot-like way; she tilts the barrel this way and that as she tests out lines from tough-guy movies. She’s adorable and,…
