Z/Web

Extremely interesting and unusual film, made all the more dramatic as it’s based on a true story. The gimmick, of course, is that it’s about a girl who goes around dressed as a boy, but the film doesn’t manipulate that gimmick: it’s starts off with her as a boy and finishes with her as a boy. The core conflict isn’t so much the boy-girl confusion as it is the confusion of life in general: all the slacker characters have little purpose except for getting drunk and/or laid. The confusion of sexual identity is ultimately a metaphor for seeking the purpose of life.

There are a few glaring flaws in the film that meant I found the story slightly confusing: those were cleared up in the DVD commentary, but it’s poor direction when that’s required. To give one example, the film begins with the girl getting her hair cut like a boy and going out with a girl: according to the commentary, this was the first time she’d dared to do this, but that wasn’t at all clear from the scene. Without any knowledge of her previous life, I assumed she’d been doing this for years; but of course the events after that are more powerful when we realize that this is a new adventure for her. The film immediately cuts to a year later (there’s a date on the screen), but since we don’t know the date of the first scene, we have no way of knowing this is a year later! I figured it was later that night after that first date (which didn’t make much sense).

I recommend the DVD commentary version — it’s helpful at explaining some of the thought behind this provoking picture. Excellent performances also make this a good film. However, there’s still a gap between the audience and the main character: we’re let in, but the girl’s sexual confusion is never truly explained, and at the end of the film we’re still wondering “Why?” Perhaps this is just a personal observation or perhaps the confusion of sexual identity is never to be understood by someone who doesn’t suffer from it (though the writer in me refuses to believe that any experience can’t be explained), but either way, I found the film left mysteries unexplored. Still, it’s worth seeing just for the questions it asks.