So, as I studied film at uni and have done precisely half of nothing with my degree for the last 3 years, coupled with the fact that thanks to the wonderful Cineworld Unlimited card I spend far too much time sitting in a dark room with a bunch of strangers, I thought it would be a great idea to start blogging about the films I've seen and the dumb shit that I think about them...
Fortunately for me, I've seen two films this past week that actually stand up to some sort of comparison given that, at their core, they have very similar themes and concerns - albeit expressed in quite a different fashion. The films in question being Whip It and Cemetery Junction. (in case you haven't guessed, there are going to be ***SPOILERS*** from here on...)
Whip It tells the story of Bliss Cavendar, your typical indie-themed awkward teen girl (played by Ellen Page, natch) living in the small town of Bodeen, Texas. It's set in the modern day, but with the kitschy outfits and backward hick attitudes it could easily be the 1970s. Her problems, as they are, revolve around the audacity of her mother trying to get her involved in beauty pageants and that she has to work in a bbq restaurant. This harrowing existence is broken by her discovery of a Roller Derby league which, naturally, is her only way out of town. Oh, if I had a penny for everytime Roller Derby has saved someone's soul...
Cemetery Junction is set in the early 1970s in the titular town - your typical nowhere town where everyone knows everyone and everything stays the same. We meet Freddie, Bruce and Snork - three old friends who are all trying to figure out what to do with their lives and, above all else, wanting to escape.
"Get some skates on. Be your own hero" - Maggie Mayhem, Whip It
"People from round here don't do things like that" - Freddie Taylor, Cemetery Junction
Right there are two quotes that highlight exactly where these two films head in different directions.
Whip It essentially feeds us up a big ol' slice of the American Dream like it was grandma's apple pie (or some other lazy American cliche....cheeseburger? Hispanic labour?) with Bliss seemingly unstoppable and unshakable in her pursuit of freedom from Bodeen. When she first meets the Roller Derby girls she decides pretty much there and then, like the impressionable young scamp she is, that this is what she wants to do with her life. Obviously, those old Barbie skates that she had years and years ago still fit (feet don't grow much when you're a teenager, right?) and then the film takes a bit of a tangeant as it picks up a lot of the classic sign posts of a sports movie...from the classic "Oh look, she's falling over a bit HA HA HA!" through to the "wait, she's actually the best person to ever play *insert sport here*/classic bit of montage" scene which builds to the inevitable "You're-double-booked-on-the-day-of-the-championship-game-with-an-event-that's-relevant-to-your-old-boring-life-giving-you-some-difficult-choices-to-make-in-a-highly-dramatic-fashion" finale; a lot of this will feel familiar to anyone who has ever watched a moving image.
Focusing on the idea of escaping though, what struck me most about Bliss and her Roller Derby dream is just how easy it all is for her, especially as she's supposed to be some awkward 'alternative' small town girl, which to me just smacks of the blind confidence and sense of entitlement that the American Dream is all about it. When you add in a slice of 21st century girl power, as one critic called it, we're left with a quite potent and sickly cocktail of enpowerment - to hell with the parents and the doubters, I will be a Roller Derby star! Even when she does hit some narrative roadblocks, it was all a bit hum-drum and predictable - I felt myself thinking "hmmm, this is all going pretty well for her at the moment. I guess in about 10 minutes things will go down hill, but then maybe 15 minutes later she'll have it all in control again". The tunnel vision that Bliss has adds to her character, but detracts from the narrative.
Everything and everyone around Bliss is left frustratingly undeveloped - her teammates are cookie cutter bad girl stereotypes, she used to be friends with a girl who hangs out with jocks but now they hate each other, her best friend just drops in that she's got a place in a good college which is mentioned as pretty much a sidenote, a love interest comes and gets dumped by Bliss with little consequence apart from, it feels, to tick another 21st century girl power (as one review describes the film) box showing that Bliss don't need no man and is completely in control of her destiny. It also ticks the boxes of many of the staple young-alternatives-in-love with some of their crazy, kooky dates - oh look they're in a field! They don't do regular dates, take that society! Maybe there's more character development in the novel which would help make sense of these things, but the screenplay was written by the original author (Shauna Cross) so unless we begin to deal in schizophrenia it's not entirely accurate to talk about the film ruining a book.
Fortunately for me, I've seen two films this past week that actually stand up to some sort of comparison given that, at their core, they have very similar themes and concerns - albeit expressed in quite a different fashion. The films in question being Whip It and Cemetery Junction. (in case you haven't guessed, there are going to be ***SPOILERS*** from here on...)
Whip It tells the story of Bliss Cavendar, your typical indie-themed awkward teen girl (played by Ellen Page, natch) living in the small town of Bodeen, Texas. It's set in the modern day, but with the kitschy outfits and backward hick attitudes it could easily be the 1970s. Her problems, as they are, revolve around the audacity of her mother trying to get her involved in beauty pageants and that she has to work in a bbq restaurant. This harrowing existence is broken by her discovery of a Roller Derby league which, naturally, is her only way out of town. Oh, if I had a penny for everytime Roller Derby has saved someone's soul...
Cemetery Junction is set in the early 1970s in the titular town - your typical nowhere town where everyone knows everyone and everything stays the same. We meet Freddie, Bruce and Snork - three old friends who are all trying to figure out what to do with their lives and, above all else, wanting to escape.
"Get some skates on. Be your own hero" - Maggie Mayhem, Whip It
"People from round here don't do things like that" - Freddie Taylor, Cemetery Junction
Right there are two quotes that highlight exactly where these two films head in different directions.
Whip It essentially feeds us up a big ol' slice of the American Dream like it was grandma's apple pie (or some other lazy American cliche....cheeseburger? Hispanic labour?) with Bliss seemingly unstoppable and unshakable in her pursuit of freedom from Bodeen. When she first meets the Roller Derby girls she decides pretty much there and then, like the impressionable young scamp she is, that this is what she wants to do with her life. Obviously, those old Barbie skates that she had years and years ago still fit (feet don't grow much when you're a teenager, right?) and then the film takes a bit of a tangeant as it picks up a lot of the classic sign posts of a sports movie...from the classic "Oh look, she's falling over a bit HA HA HA!" through to the "wait, she's actually the best person to ever play *insert sport here*/classic bit of montage" scene which builds to the inevitable "You're-double-booked-on-the-day-of-the-championship-game-with-an-event-that's-relevant-to-your-old-boring-life-giving-you-some-difficult-choices-to-make-in-a-highly-dramatic-fashion" finale; a lot of this will feel familiar to anyone who has ever watched a moving image.
Focusing on the idea of escaping though, what struck me most about Bliss and her Roller Derby dream is just how easy it all is for her, especially as she's supposed to be some awkward 'alternative' small town girl, which to me just smacks of the blind confidence and sense of entitlement that the American Dream is all about it. When you add in a slice of 21st century girl power, as one critic called it, we're left with a quite potent and sickly cocktail of enpowerment - to hell with the parents and the doubters, I will be a Roller Derby star! Even when she does hit some narrative roadblocks, it was all a bit hum-drum and predictable - I felt myself thinking "hmmm, this is all going pretty well for her at the moment. I guess in about 10 minutes things will go down hill, but then maybe 15 minutes later she'll have it all in control again". The tunnel vision that Bliss has adds to her character, but detracts from the narrative.
Everything and everyone around Bliss is left frustratingly undeveloped - her teammates are cookie cutter bad girl stereotypes, she used to be friends with a girl who hangs out with jocks but now they hate each other, her best friend just drops in that she's got a place in a good college which is mentioned as pretty much a sidenote, a love interest comes and gets dumped by Bliss with little consequence apart from, it feels, to tick another 21st century girl power (as one review describes the film) box showing that Bliss don't need no man and is completely in control of her destiny. It also ticks the boxes of many of the staple young-alternatives-in-love with some of their crazy, kooky dates - oh look they're in a field! They don't do regular dates, take that society! Maybe there's more character development in the novel which would help make sense of these things, but the screenplay was written by the original author (Shauna Cross) so unless we begin to deal in schizophrenia it's not entirely accurate to talk about the film ruining a book.
This certainty and control is the exact opposite of Cemetery Junction. Here, our protagonists are basically clueless as to how they will escape their tragic little town. They all have their ideas - Freddie wants to emulate the success of his hot shot new boss Mr.Kendrick, Bruce is your classic rebellious bad boy character who blames his father for his mother leaving and talks the talk about wanting to get out, while Snork just wants, in the parlance of our times, to get his end away - without lowering his standards.
What we find as the narrative unfolds though is how these characters, and their goals change. Bruce realises the difficulties his Dad has faced and gains a semblance of respect for him by the end of the film. Snork gets the girl...the very same girl he said he wouldn't lower his standards for at the beginning of the film - they've both found what they wanted, but it wasn't actually what they thought they wanted at all. We also find, in stark contrast to Whip It, that these characters, far from being in control of their own destiny, battling against their surroundings and those gosh darned authority figures, are actually there own worst enemies. The best example of this is when the gang are out for one last night of fun before they depart for their overseas adventure in the morning...as Bruce turns in slow motion to get in a fight that he just couldn't walk away from, you could almost hear audible groans in the cinema. The kind of groans you'd give when one of your own dickhead friends (you know you've all got one) gets into another mess that could be easily avoided. It's a brilliant scene which highlights how well developed I think these main characters are (well, maybe not Snork..) and a far cry from the 2 dimension roller skating types of Whip It.
Freddie though, is what the film is all about. His careerist aspirations revolve around working for a life assurance company. It's entirely apt as Freddie's supervisor Mike gets to lecture pensioners on the horrors of not planning properly for the future, and how miserable they could end up. This is obviously a driving force for the film. His goals begin to shift as he sees that the working world isn't all nice cars and mansions (highlighted particularly well by the scene where Mr.Kendrick gives an insincere retirement speech to a loyal employee at the Winner's Ball) and he begins to envision other life goals - and this is all down to Mr.Kendrick's daughter, Julie. With her photos and her National Geographic, she immediately is positioned as being much more worldly and knowledgeable than Freddie, whose idea of travelling when they meet is to go to Cornwall. As they grow closer, he begins to take on her ambitions of travelling for himself - reciting them literally word for word at several points in the film.
I felt that this left us with a main character who is actually pretty weak. Not in the way he's written or performed, but just in the way he is as a character. He gives the impression that he would probably be inspired to do anything if you talked to him about it for a few minutes, like some sort of floppy haired sponge. As such, I don't think it's a coincidence that there is never a firm destination for his travel plans that he picks up. While this works in a romantic narrative sense to give it the heading off into the sunset feel, it's also totally suited to a character who, you can't help but feel, has very little clue where he's actually going even when he gets his happy ending...it's also worth remembering that he is actually running off the train at the end of the film before seeing Julie - he couldn't even go through with his travel plans without someone holding his hand. Again, a great double edged sword here of having a happy, lovey-dovey ending (which pleasingly replaces a ott kiss with some glib dialogue at the end) while also leaving us with a 'hero' who is pretty much a wuss and a coward. But a loveable wuss and coward - like Fozzy Bear.
These differences are pretty much, as I see it, a classic two sides of the atlantic contrast. America, the land of opportunity, where everyone has a dream and you can't stop them taking it. England, the land where people hate winners and would much rather you just kept quiet and queued for a bit longer. Whereas Bliss will fearlessly go to Austin, Texas and try out for a Roller Derby team, the lads in Cemetery Junction will get drunk and talk about changing things without doing much until change is pretty much thrust upon them.
You can probably tell from my tone which of the films I preferred, but then, as an English guy who has no idea what he's really doing with is life is that such a big surprise?
Now, where did I leave those skates...
What we find as the narrative unfolds though is how these characters, and their goals change. Bruce realises the difficulties his Dad has faced and gains a semblance of respect for him by the end of the film. Snork gets the girl...the very same girl he said he wouldn't lower his standards for at the beginning of the film - they've both found what they wanted, but it wasn't actually what they thought they wanted at all. We also find, in stark contrast to Whip It, that these characters, far from being in control of their own destiny, battling against their surroundings and those gosh darned authority figures, are actually there own worst enemies. The best example of this is when the gang are out for one last night of fun before they depart for their overseas adventure in the morning...as Bruce turns in slow motion to get in a fight that he just couldn't walk away from, you could almost hear audible groans in the cinema. The kind of groans you'd give when one of your own dickhead friends (you know you've all got one) gets into another mess that could be easily avoided. It's a brilliant scene which highlights how well developed I think these main characters are (well, maybe not Snork..) and a far cry from the 2 dimension roller skating types of Whip It.
Freddie though, is what the film is all about. His careerist aspirations revolve around working for a life assurance company. It's entirely apt as Freddie's supervisor Mike gets to lecture pensioners on the horrors of not planning properly for the future, and how miserable they could end up. This is obviously a driving force for the film. His goals begin to shift as he sees that the working world isn't all nice cars and mansions (highlighted particularly well by the scene where Mr.Kendrick gives an insincere retirement speech to a loyal employee at the Winner's Ball) and he begins to envision other life goals - and this is all down to Mr.Kendrick's daughter, Julie. With her photos and her National Geographic, she immediately is positioned as being much more worldly and knowledgeable than Freddie, whose idea of travelling when they meet is to go to Cornwall. As they grow closer, he begins to take on her ambitions of travelling for himself - reciting them literally word for word at several points in the film.
I felt that this left us with a main character who is actually pretty weak. Not in the way he's written or performed, but just in the way he is as a character. He gives the impression that he would probably be inspired to do anything if you talked to him about it for a few minutes, like some sort of floppy haired sponge. As such, I don't think it's a coincidence that there is never a firm destination for his travel plans that he picks up. While this works in a romantic narrative sense to give it the heading off into the sunset feel, it's also totally suited to a character who, you can't help but feel, has very little clue where he's actually going even when he gets his happy ending...it's also worth remembering that he is actually running off the train at the end of the film before seeing Julie - he couldn't even go through with his travel plans without someone holding his hand. Again, a great double edged sword here of having a happy, lovey-dovey ending (which pleasingly replaces a ott kiss with some glib dialogue at the end) while also leaving us with a 'hero' who is pretty much a wuss and a coward. But a loveable wuss and coward - like Fozzy Bear.
These differences are pretty much, as I see it, a classic two sides of the atlantic contrast. America, the land of opportunity, where everyone has a dream and you can't stop them taking it. England, the land where people hate winners and would much rather you just kept quiet and queued for a bit longer. Whereas Bliss will fearlessly go to Austin, Texas and try out for a Roller Derby team, the lads in Cemetery Junction will get drunk and talk about changing things without doing much until change is pretty much thrust upon them.
You can probably tell from my tone which of the films I preferred, but then, as an English guy who has no idea what he's really doing with is life is that such a big surprise?
Now, where did I leave those skates...
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