A 2011 limited-release Road Trip Plot film based on the novel, directed by Derick Martini and starring Chloë Grace Moretz, in a role that evokes some of the Troubling Unchildlike Behavior from her other big movies, taken up to eleven.
Luli (Moretz) is 13 years old, from the middle of Nebraska, daughter of two alcoholic parents and way too influenced by Western pop culture. She always tells Blatant Lies to make her miserable home life seem not so bad. When her parents seem to abandon her one day, she chances upon a commercial on the TV for Las Vegas, and she decides straight away to escape, eventually falling in with the worst kind of people...
Provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Luli's parents just leave her alone one day, inspiring her escape.
- Attempted Rape: Luli is nearly raped by a man in the bathroom, but manages to hold him off long enough before Eddie intervenes.
- Ax-Crazy: From the start, we can tell that Eddie's a little off, but then he decides that he and Luli are somehow star-crossed lovers, ties her to a bed and most likely rapes her.
- Bittersweet Ending: Luli's dad's just gone and her Mom's sold their land to a developer, she's witnessed two murders and caused another, and she is totally disillusioned about her life. But Beau, the 'cleaner', offers Luli a place to stay in Los Angeles, where she can hopefully start her young life over.
- Bunnies for Cuteness: Glenda buys a massive stuffed rabbit and carries it in the back behind Luli when they first meet. It ends up being a delivery for a friend of her's kid.
- Chained to a Bed: Eventually Eddie snaps and decides Luli is his soulmate, tying her to a bed. Maybe other things happened too...
- Compulsive Liar: Luli frequently feels the need to tell lies about her home life, presumably to avoid telling the truth.
- Fille Fatale: Luli, blatantly. Despite being only 13, she spends a majority of the film in tiny, revealing outfits that seem to have been designed by pedophiles for pedophiles. She has no qualms about walking around in her underwear in front of strangers, routinely asks strange men if they think she's pretty and if they want to kiss her, etc. all in attempts to manipulate them into doing what she wants. Practically any scene she shares with a male character is incredibly uncomfortable to watch.
- I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Eddie claims the gun is empty (without checking) and dry-fires until (whoops) he finds it isn't, shooting Glenda dead.
- Nice Guy: Clement, the boy Luli meets at the motel, and Beau, who wants to send Luli to live with his sister to get her as far away from the mess she was in as possible.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Eddie rescues Luli from a man's rape attempt, then beats him to death in spite of her protests against it.
- Paper Tiger: Luli talks a big game and practices trying to be a badass Fille Fatale, but very quickly proves to be out of her element, from the moment she meets Eddie and answers his question timidly as a mouse.
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Luli tosses around several slurs when she's angry at Eddie, which he tries to call her out on.
- Saw It in a Movie Once: The majority of the films Shout-Out number is Luli copying things she's seen in movies.
- Luli practices with her new gun in the mirror, quoting the bullet counting sequence from Dirty Harry shortly before pointing it at someone for real.
- Trying on a skimpy outfit, she alternates between Leia in A New Hope and Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.
- One of her pros for going to Las Vegas is 'Be like that girl from Remington Steele'.
- Glenda cites the trope by name for explaining her plan to have Luli fake a seizure to rob a storeowner.
- Soundtrack Dissonance:
- While untying Luli and trying to escape Eddie, Glinda tells her to sing the song to calm her nerves, starting the first two lines. Luli continues, and both of them shut up when Eddie shows up behind them with a gun, casually finishing the verse.
- Again soon after, when Luli shoots Eddie, 'I've Fallen To Pieces' plays.
- Sudden Soundtrack Stop: When Luli shoots Eddie, the sound cuts out entirely and is replaced with Luli saying the word 'Pop'. Immediately after, sound returns.
- Traumatic Haircut: After being chased and possibly raped by Eddie, Luli wakes up to find her long blonde hair now chopped short and dyed black. Eddie says that he did it because he thought she would like it.
- Unreliable Narrator: Eddie tells Luli that Glenda gave him a grand to take Luli off her hands. Glenda shows up after a few days after Eddie has taken her hostage, telling her that he lied.
