Jennifer Jason Leigh is a boozy mess in this underrated ’90s drama

Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by a new movie coming out that week. This week: It’s Siblings Week at The A.V. Club, so we’re recommending movies about sisters.
Georgia (1995)
About a half-hour into Ulu Grosbard’s Georgia, Sadie Flood (Jennifer Jason Leigh) opens her door to Axel (Max Perlich), a kind-faced, 23-year-old grocery delivery boy. Axel tallies up the numbers for Sadie’s bill: The food comes out to a paltry $4.53, but the booze is going to run her $36.60. In most movies, this would be enough information to establish the protagonist’s instability, but Sadie’s just getting started. After she pays the bill, Axel stays behind and confesses his love to her (he recognizes her from the dive-bar music circuit); Sadie pours herself a drink, accepts his company, and before long finds herself married to Axel. This messy, whirling-dervish rhythm has long become the standard speed of Sadie’s life—the opening-credits sequence alone details her introduction to and eventual falling out with a paranoid blues musician (Jimmy Witherspoon, in a cameo)—and Sadie’s family is at a loss as to how to deal with her.