My most recent picks of
novel and movie were not chosen for having targeted the demographic born since
2000 (Generation Z or, as some prefer, iGen). Yet by happenstance both were so
aimed. Carl Hiaasen is known for his rollicking but entirely adult crime
fiction. Movie audiences may know him best from the 90s film adaptation with
Demi Moore of his novel Strip Tease.
Young Adult (YA) fiction is not what one expects from his pen; it is not what I
expected anyway. Similarly, I opted for the movie Thoroughbreds on account of a pocket-description of it as a stylish
indie neo-noir thriller. So it is, but contrary to my expectation the
protagonists are 17-ish. That’s OK for both page and screen. Excepting anyone
under 12, we’ve all been teenage. In some ways we never get past it. While
there is much teen-oriented entertainment that makes adults wince, a book or
script that is not hopelessly… well… adolescent remains relatable at any age.
These are relatable.
Skink: No
Surrender by Carl Hiaasen
Richard is a shy 14-y.o.
Floridian who is close friends with his same-age cousin Malley. Malley is smart
and capable but impetuous and rebellious with a history of running away; she is
a teenage handful whom her parents intend to send to boarding school in New
Hampshire. Her IQ doesn’t save her from having a 14-year-old’s foolish romantic
streak, which leads her (in the wake of the news about boarding school) to run
away with a fellow calling himself Talbo Chock whom she met in an online chat
room. This proves to be a bad idea. “Talbo” is not who he pretends to be. He is
a predator with handcuffs. He lets Malley have some monitored cell phone
contact with her parents and Richard in order to reassure them that she is just
on another of her ill-advised romps and is in no real danger. Richard thinks
otherwise.
Richard encounters a
burly, eccentric, septuagenarian, hands-on (more precisely, fists-on)
environmental activist, Viet-vet, former governor of Florida who almost
everyone assumes died years earlier. What follows are chases, fights, and
adventures on the road and down the Choctawatchee River as Skink and Richard
and Malley herself strive to break her free.
Normally I prefer
fiction – even YA fiction – to be more complex and, like life, morally
ambiguous, but there is something refreshing about an old-fashioned YA in which
(as in the 50s when YAs were without intended insult called Juveniles) the good
guys are clearly distinguishable from the bad guys. The book does not equate
good and lawful, I should add, though, more frequently than one might imagine,
neither did ones from the 30s-60s. Thanks to Hiaasen’s skilled writing and
trademark humor, it’s a fun read for tweens, teens, and adults.
**** ****
Thoroughbreds (2017)
This debut film by Cory
Finley, on the other hand, is very short on good guys, and that itself is good.
It fits the style of movie he has chosen.
“Privileged” barely hints
at the family economic status of the two teens at the heart of this neo-noir:
Lily, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, and Amanda, played by Olivia Cooke. Amanda’s
parents consider her to be troubled. She is really not – and that is the
trouble. Amanda is lacking emotions. (There is a distinction between drives, e.g.
hunger and lust, and emotions, e.g. joy and sadness.) Amanda isn’t unhappy. She’s
not happy either, but she isn’t unhappy. Everything is all the same to her. Because
she doesn’t experience thrills from crime, she is not particularly impelled
toward it, but because she has no guilt or fear she has no compunctions about
it either. Finley makes a point of not diagnosing Amanda, but she fits the
description for alexithymia. Lily doesn’t lack emotions, but that makes her
more dangerous.
Our sympathies at the
outset of the movie are entirely with Lily. Despite her rich surroundings, she
is plainly uncomfortable with her life and especially with her creepy
stepfather Mark (Paul Sparks). By her weird interactions with him, we are
inclined to suspect the worst of him and to infer that Lily has every reason to
hate him. When Amanda and Lily hypothetically discuss murdering him, we
scarcely blame them. Yet, as the movie progresses our assessment of Lily
shifts. Mark, to be sure, is a jerk, but being a jerk is not a capital offense
and it is possible that it is his only offense. When Mark threatens Lily with boarding
school the murder plan moves beyond the hypothetical. Just maybe Lily is not a
victim who has been pushed too far but a narcissistic psychopath. (Psychopaths have feelings; they just don't care about yours very much.) Yet, Lily
never entirely loses the viewers’ sympathies – or at least their sneaking
admiration.
Cory Finley has made a
dark comedy thriller that is well written, well shot, well acted, and
thoroughly enjoyable.
**** ****
If there is a common
lesson in Skink and Thoroughbreds, it seems to be, “Don’t
threaten young ladies with boarding school.” Is boarding school as bad as all
that?
Good reviews, but not in my wheelhouse. :) I saw Annihilation last night and thought it was pretty good and different for an invasion movie. I picked up a biography or memoir by Herbie Hancock (jazz keyboardist).
ReplyDeleteBook and film were not what I expected them to be, but actually they were OK.
ReplyDeleteAnnihilation has gotten mixed reviews, I notice, with any given reviewer’s tilt mostly determined by whether he or she likes unanswered questions. I’m glad you liked it, and I’ll keep it in mind for a look-see. The memoir sounds interesting.
Annihilation--that makes sense and I would think the unanswered questions would be a dividing line, however, there are two more books in that series. However, I prefer unanswered questions, and I would think there would be more questions than answers if we had some kind of alien invasion or odd phenomena such as this. It's also nonlinear in it's story and doesn't quite follow the book, but overall I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteI suppose deviations from the book are likely in a movie such as "Annihilation." With a classic novel there is not much one can do with a screen adaptation but follow the plot. One can’t very well film “A Tale of Two Cities” in which Carton escapes the guillotine. With less lofty lit – scifi or graphic novel or whatever – departing from the book for movie-logic reasons can make good sense. In the movie “Kick-Ass” the boys at one point mention that what works in a comic might not work in a movie. They are right. It’s a self-referential remark since “Kick-Ass” the movie differs in key aspects from the comic. Dave doesn’t get the girl in the comic, for instance.
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