Thursday, June 5, 2008

Remember the Daze and the film tradition of the "big day" for teens


Remember the Daze is a new independent teen movie that depicts a last day in school for 1999. It is in a tradition of films that explore a big pivotal day for a group of teens in a retrospective setting. In 1993, Richard Linklatter explored the same kind of territory looking back at 1976. And of course, there was George Lucas' famous 1973 depiction of a night in 1962 with American Grafitti.

Remember the Daze also known as The Beautiful Ordinary is not in the category of either of those forerunners, but creates a sense of entry into an ensemble and private teen world, to perfectly anarachisic toe be real. These kids consume lots of drugs and alcohol move around from one party to the next. There is the closeted lesbian couple, the spurned girlfriend who is out for revenge, the macho dude who ends up with younger girl and is ultimately protected her. And once in a great while, they show some clueless adults. I like the fact this world of 1999 is color blind, with lots of biracial kids blending in among each other. The real minority is the framed device,a solitary asian guy who sees the world who takes pictures of the manic happenings around him.

This film's director, Jess Mamafort, is a 26 year old graduate of the NYU film school. I don't thin Remember the Daze/Beautiful Ordinary is any kind of landmark effort, but her talent as a director is apparent and there are definitely some nice moments in it. The tone is closer to Canada's Degrassi: The Next Generation than American Pie, thank goodness. Her cast including Amber Heard, Alexa Vega, Melonie Diaz and others were not household names but then again Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey and Richard Dreyfus were not known to the world when Dazed or Grafitti came out.

I've got to hope that 2020 some new director is going to do a big day of teen film about their memories of 2010 and that cycle will come around again a decade or so beyond that. Film has a lovely way of capturing and creating a romanticism for time of transition and it is nice to see a talented filmmaker try out this universal theme and setting in the ensemble day in the life format.

More about this film can be gleaned from this review in Variety.
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:55 PM
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