ONE of the season’s more intriguing screen presences is Clea DuVall, a tomboyish young actress who so far has generally outshined the feeble material she’s been given to work with.
DuVall, who had a showy supporting role in “Girl, Interrupted,” almost (but not quite) made this summer’s dreadful “But I’m a Cheerleader” worth watching for her turn as a flirtatious lesbian camper.
DuVall exhibits her magnetism again in “Wildflowers,” another negligible piece of indie celluloid, in which she plays a confused 17-year-old who becomes obsessed with an older woman (Daryl Hannah) she meets at a rock concert in 1985 San Francisco.
Though Melissa Bird was the executive producer of the lesbian romp “The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love,” her debut as a writer-director with “Wildflowers” isn’t overtly sapphic.
DuVall’s character becomes convinced the enigmatic Hannah is her mother, who abandoned her as a baby during a party at a commune in 1968.
This slight tale unfolds with excruciating predictability and slowness, Bird’s fancy jump cuts totally at odds with the extremely laid-back storytelling and sun-dappled, Kodak-moments photography that wouldn’t be out of place in a movie on the Lifetime channel.
DuVall’s focused intensity shines like a beacon through the foggy narrative and the other cast members’ vague performances. It’s especially painful to watch the extremely mannered Hannah, basically playing an updated version of the flaky artist she portrayed in the 1986 megabomb “Legal Eagles,” opposite Robert Redford.
Also sleepwalking through their parts are Eric Roberts, as one of Hannah’s former lovers, and Tomas Arana as the hippie who raised DuVall’s character.
“Wildflowers” is playing a two-week engagement at the Pioneer, prior to its Sept. 26 debut on home video.
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WILDFLOWERS 1/2
Androgynous Clea DuVall’s performance shines through a foggily told, vaguely acted coming-of-age tale set in 1985 San Francisco. Running time: 98 minutes. Rated R. At the Pioneer, Ave. A and Third Street.