Ryan McNeil
Note: I’ve found myself in a neat situation of being both a few reviews behind, and out-of-town for a few days. So to keep the line moving, I thought I’d offer up some random thoughts about a few films watched in recent weeks. Hope y’all don’t mind the break in the routine, things will go back to normal around here on Tuesday. – RM
It’s easy to forget how times have changed. For some of us (*cough*) 1993 might feel like it was “just yesterday. In truth, they might as well start teaching 90’s culture in history classes…if they don’t already.
THE TO DO LIST underlines just how long ago that was by telling a story of a time when sexuality and sexual activity wasn’t quite so commonplace. Brandy isn’t just on a quest to get her freak on in this movie, she’s on a quest to learn about it in every way, shape, in form. The amusing thing is the lengths she has to go to in order to learn what she wants to learn. I can’t help but think that the modern 13-year-old knows what Brandy didn’t in 1993. Even if they don’t, the answers seem unavoidable. Just go to a site like Tumblr. Or Vine.
Quaintness of the age aside, what’s relevant is the question of sex being “a big deal”. For some it is, for some it’s not. Watching what Brandy has to go through, it feels like there’s something to be said for waiting, and something to be said for “getting it out-of-the-way”. Like all great quandaries, the truth is likely somewhere in the middle…but as Brandy learns, the only way to find out for sure is the hard way. Maybe that’s why so few people have great memories of those first few experiences, and why so few ever will even with an onslaught of information.
That choice that Brandy has to face is what I liked best about this rather funny film by writer-director Maggie Carey. It leans on nostalgia, as so many comedies of an era do: some gags work, some gags don’t. I haven’t the foggiest clue how a reference to Home Improvement made it into the script. It’s alright thought, because I can think of few things as awesomely ridiculous as getting a handjob at a showing of THE FIRM.
While this film seems somewhat primed to get lost in the shuffle at the multiplex this summer, I do hope people find it. It’s a tangible story for both girls and boys since it’s a point in our lives that we all struggle with. The funny thing, as Brandi’s boss Willy points out in a neat metaphor, is that it’s only when we stop struggling that things come naturally.
You’d think we’d have figured that out by now. It’s on Tumblr, right?
This was a very awkward film for me to watch….
My mom wanted to see this with me. I’m glad I didn’t. I would have become 12 years old and giggled the whole way through. That being said, I’m intrigued. I do wish they weren’t shoving it down my throat with their endless advertisements, though. That always makes me suspicious about how good it really is.
Where are you seeing all the advertisements? I only caught the trailer about three times – all three being before other films I’d paid to see. Even then, I didn’t catch the trailer for the first time until about four weeks ago.
I do know what you mean though – several films have suffered that fate for me in the past (THE HEAT seemed to be everywhere all spring).
PS – Good call not going with your mom.
I caught this last week and really enjoyed it. I agree it leans a bit on nostalgia (as many other films do) but when I read it was based loosely on Maggie Carey’s own experiences as a teen in the 90s, I gave it a pass since I realized the setting wasn’t just for the nostalgia factor.
I’m digging the trend of taking genres that are typically male-dominated and giving them female-centric spins, just wish some of them (like this one) were more visible!
I’m right with ya – thought it had just the right amount of nostalgia. Enough to flavour it without getting completely hung up in HOT TUB TIME MACHINE-esque silliness.
Now that you mention it, what’s up with films like this and IN A WORLD… flying so far under the radar? I mean I know they’re indie and all, but doesn’t Searchlight have enough money to put a poster on a bus shelter or something?