Admirable angst
Susan Skoog made her writing and directing debut in 1998 with this subtle, emotionally realistic look at adolescence through the lives of two 17 year-old girls. Since the film was cast strictly through no-name actors, it was unfortunately ignored. The flip side of this is that the film feels that much more accessible instead of “played”.
It’s set in 1981, a time between 70’s drugs (though they are still around in abundance) and before pop music was really taking over the charts with bland music that all sounded the same. I actually remember this time period well, though I wasn’t quite a decade yet in age, but I found this film to portray the uneasy spirit of the era as Reagan took over the White House, with an admirable simplicity. Like Anna, I came home to a single mother who had given up a lot to raise my brother and me, and also like Anna, couldn’t find the words yet to accept her strengths and weaknesses as part of the same package.
The Characters
So we share the experiences of two buddies, Anna (Liza Weil) and Brenda (Chad Morgan). These are your average teenagers, not some extreme recognizable stereotype like the characters from The Breakfast Club (though I still love that movie). They do a little pot and drink and act cool around one another, and watch each other’s back. They are also true to themselves though, Anna about her art career and studies and Brenda about having fun and eventually getting out of dodge.
These two are fairly inseparable though distinctly different. Brenda is the more rebellious and cares meticulously for her looks while Anna is shier with just a touch of the tomboy in her. Brenda is sexually active, though she doesn’t enjoy it so much as the attention and the escape from her supposedly perfect family. Anna is still a virgin and her first experience with sex hurts just enough to know that she should have waited for someone who cared about her more.
So Anna and Brenda stick together, even when they feel out of their element. Anna doesn’t particularly enjoy riding around in a car with ex-cons high on cocaine and Brenda is out of her element visiting the art school Anna has applied for admission. But these are actions you forge through because that other person would do the same for you. They don’t judge each other for their mistakes, and neither does the audience because it is tacitly understood through the caring eye of this female filmmaker that adolescence is its own excuse.
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