The kids aren't okay. For some time I tried to find what “Teenagers as Teenagers” have in common with the film “Crazy”, the script for which was written sadly by the deceased girl Jessica Kaplan. And finally I found, "Teenagers Are Like Teenagers" is a prequel to "Crazy." In the latter, the main character - as it would now say "majority" named Allison, in "Teenagers ..." Allison is a supporting character, but from this moment she begins to get acquainted with the life of the “golden youth”, who consider themselves quite adults.
Exactly so: “they consider themselves adults”, but only to what they “grown up” is sex, and when they do it, they are not shy of friends and orgies have become almost an everyday thing. At school, they feel like kings and queens. They do not hesitate to insult others, considering themselves higher, more worthy, frank kisses - as a challenge to all snobs, and snobs they consider everyone who lives not according to their rules. But “Teenagers...” in comparison with “Crazy” does not press on the criminal-dramatic point, here we are talking about a youth conflict, a dispute between leaders.
And the leaders in the company started at school are two friends Wendy (Amber Tamblyn) and Billy (Kelly Garner). discuss, laugh, laugh, laugh, consider all the garbage they for the time being together worked. How to get sexual satisfaction from the same guys. Nothing stopped them or embarrassed them, but one day a guy named Sean (Ashton Holmes) appeared. He looked at this company and their way of life with completely different eyes, and when Wendy began to take his side, Billy was outraged and she sent a former best friend into the pariah with the inherent selfishness of schoolchildren. Wendy's the only one strong in spirit and the confrontation has begun. They turned into public quarrels that almost came to a fight. They didn't shy away from each other. This was observed from the outside by people who at one time were expelled by friends from the company. Soon, both Wendy and Billy will face a choice, and their childhood toys of cruelty will make them miserable.
Slow video about teenagers who can be found on the streets at almost any time of the day. Dizzying cruelty and violence like the Estonian painting “Class” is not here. This is about understanding the lives of teenagers left to themselves. The film doesn’t look silly, although adults might say that the children in the film are completely stupid because of their age, but many have gone through what is shown in the film and only a few are lucky to be among the leaders of the school, beating the terrible psychological blows in the form of bullying of one-docs. The film is not endowed with deep dialogue, the essence of teenagers is not revealed, it is stored inside the characters, just everyone can suddenly recognize themselves in one place or another of the characters of the film. There are no rhetorical phrases high in philosophy. But there is aggression, there is maximalism, there is even truthfulness in “Teenagers...”
You have to be strong, you have to be yourself, and in the future it will be rewarded, as if Beth Schachter (and the director and the script behind this filmmaker) is talking about her film. This is not an accusation to teenagers, this is a warning to them and adults to be more careful with their children, it is unknown what their games will lead to as adults. Amber Tamblyn and Kelly Garner successfully embodied the community of school queens on the screen, it is not that their images are angry, but do not deserve special love, so both girls played vital roles (and maybe they themselves went through school obstacles). Ashton Holmes was pleased that he played a young man who has his own view of life and this he compares favorably. Daryl Sabara (one of Robert Rodriguez's "Spy Kids") enjoyed the kindness and natural gift of cooking. Even his youthful ardent passion for a lady much older than him (Kelly Lynch) is understandable - such and such a lady who will not like, not only a domestic boy with the threshold of his night dreams.
Teenagers as Teenagers" is not a movie for everyone, even the young people in the film can turn away from the movie with the words "Purg" and "Bullshit. But the director and screenwriter made a film about schoolchildren, as we saw them, and we, no, no, and recognize in these characters someone from his environment, and maybe themselves.
7 out of 10