The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

Saw The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a nice little coming of age film about a boy who is just starting high school.  He has no friends and his high school is played up as one of those movie-places where letterman-jacket-clad jocks are always hazing the freshmen.  His life begins looking up when he meets a to-cool-to-be-popular brother and sister who introduce him to cool music and Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The film reminded me of Silver Linings Playbook in as much as it's a fairly fluffy film which is not afraid to delve into some darker psychological waters.  In particular, there's a freakout sequence near the end of the film which I adored.  The film leading up to that point is fairly standard attractive teen melodrama (which I greatly enjoyed since I have a fondness for melodrama) but the ending tips into sublime psychodrama (which is the drama that I like best of all!)

The film is very slickly shot but with some elements of subtle story-telling.  We get the sense that something is wrong with the main character, that he has some troubled past, but we don't get to know exactly what's eating him until far into the film.  But he drops little clues here and there that presage the ending and help explain why he's such a non-entity in most of the film.

I liked the film alright.  It felt like a slightly updated John Huges film, with sweetness and sincerity that feels a hair manufactured, but which is nonetheless.  Unlike John Huges however, this film is shot in a more modern, cozy way, with handheld cameras lending an air of intimacy and close-up shots galore.  It's not the most trenchant film, but as teen fare goes, you could do worse.

Kes (1969)

Saw Kes, a sort of sad film about a little boy who lives in a Yorkshire mining town with his single mother and drunken older brother.  He is bullied by his brother, bullied by teachers, bullied by other kids.  Things change a bit however when he starts training a kestrel.

The film starts off with the brother bullying the main character boy, signaling that this will not be a happy movie.  The small town is not a slum, but everyone is visibly struggling and worn out by the struggle.  At one point the boy buys some meat to feed the bird and in the background you can hear a screaming match going on.  That's just life here.  Similarly at school the teachers are indiscriminately cruel, not so much arbiters of justice as terrible ogres to be avoided at all cost.

The kestrel symbolizes the main character's soul: his desire for something more and his bright personality, not yet worn down by his harsh life, but already beginning to be subdued.  The bird is what he aspires to be like and, in one scene where he talks to his classmates about the bird hunting, the bird makes him unique and fascinating and splendid.  Of course we viewers know that it's hard to maintain any of that in the slums.

The main character is fairly young but acts with great naturalism, apparently improvising a lot of his dialogue.  The film is shot almost entirely via hidden camera, which gives the film a grainy look.  Often the corners of the shot are cut off, making everything feel cramped and dim.  In contrast, the scenes of nature are shot more conventionally, giving them the feeling of comparative light and space and beauty.

The film is relatively dismal, but not without its moments of tenderness and happiness.  It's the sort of film you show to teenagers to inspire them and to try to get them to be empathetic.

The Golden Door (2006)

Saw The Golden Door, a very narrowly focused film about an Italian family immigrating to America in the 1920s.  The film opens following a small family and, as they proceed through immigration, it widens into a broader look at specifically what went down in Ellis Island back then.  The film employs elements of magical realism which are at first jarring but become lyrical at the end.

Combined with this trip across the Atlantic, there is a budding romance developing between the patriarch of the family and another immigrant woman.  The film uses this relationship as a mirror for the excitement and anxieties of immigration.  On the one hand, they strongly desire to immigrate, but are they fit enough?  Are they worthy?  These questions are reasonable for a relationship but less so for immigration.  At one point, one of the immigrants berates the officers, demanding who they think they are, to judge ones worth?  This contrast is brought to a peak in a scene where "brides" must be identified by their American "grooms" in a highly ritualized, government sanctioned ceremony overseen by a disinterested bureaucrat.

Early in the film, we spend a lot of time in the nearly medieval squalor of rural Italy, but the latter half of the film involves a lot of scenes of bureaucratic cruelty.  The film has a spare, floating quality to it, featuring long silences and sudden tonal shifts.  I found the film engrossing, although it was a bit of a downer.  It feels like a glimpse into another time, another world, one which still exists to some extent.

My Life as a Dog

Saw My Life as a Dog, a sweet coming of age film about a little boy who is sent to live in a remote town with his uncle's family due to his mother's poor health.  In this new remote town, he makes friends and has fun, haunted and troubled by his mother's illness and the chaos it brings to his life.  He deals with the sweet and the bitter, trying to resolve them in his mind.

The film is one of those coming of age films that are sweet and melancholy, acknowledging the pain in the protagonist's life, but stridently dusting him off and hustling him on to new adventures.  We ruminate, but we don't mope.  The child's view of the world is accepting but uncertain.  Is this the way things are?  Or just how they happen to be?

I enjoyed the film okay.  It didn't make a huge impression on me, but it's a serious and kindly film.  You could watch it with your parents if you wanted.