Girl Interrupted: Angelina Jolie Turns Forty!

In the 1999 screen adaptation of Susanna Kaysen's memoir, a look at her own 18 month stay in a mental institution back in the 60's, it was Wynona Ryder who played Susanna. 

BUT it was today's birthday girl, the then 24 year old Angelina Jolie who grabbed the glory for her portrayal of bad girl Lisa—look, she's smoking, shorthand for bad, rebellious behavior—with the Academy, the Golden Globes, SAG and more, all giving Jolie awards for their version of Best Supporting Actress. 

#ThrowBackThursday #HappyBirthdayAngelinaJolie

The movie is definitely worth a #ThrowBackThursday look back, not just to see Angelina Jolie acting out. I mean, really acting out. She is positively brilliant as the wild child Lisa Rowen but she's not the only standout. Directed by James Mangold who helmed Walk the Line, Kate and Leopold and 3:10 to Yuma, but also, sadly, Knight and Day, the cast includes some earlier manifestations of a couple of today's most interesting actors: Elizabeth Moss and Jared Leto. Jillian Armanente (Nancy in Fresh Off the Boat) plays a gay patient while Jeffrey Tambor who plays Dr. Potts, finally really famous for Transparent, has been around for years. Tambor was fantastic (and a sweet person) as a big, sad man opposite Demi Moore back in the late 80's when I was still working at Tales from the Crypt. That's Vanessa Redgrave (I'm so looking forward to seeing her in The Secret Scripture) in the trailer as the shrink Wick with Whoopi Goldberg as the ward nurse. The deceased Brittany Murphy is the frenetic Daisy. 

Is Girl, Interrupted worth the roughly hour and a half you'll need to carve out to watch without interruption? 

Duh! You can stream it right now on Amazon, VUDU, iTunes, and GooglePlay. Check Netflix; the way they pull things left and right, it's hard to keep track, but as I write this it's not.