I was flipping through Hulu and found this "coming of age" movie made in the early 90's about the early 60's, and thought, why not? I haven't been too thrilled with a lot of the current stuff being churned out, after all. And what do you know, it wasn't too bad. Sort of cute...charming...a little funny...with a great sound-track and wonderful "period piece" feel. (The clothes were fantastic, too...way better than Mad Men fashion)!
The movie is narrated by a cute, very believable ten or eleven year old girl named Alice (Ally, played by Duskhu who does an amazing job) from Long Island on the verge of discovering her own place in the world when it comes to boys and sex and all that usual "coming of age" fodder. After all, her friends talk about that sort of stuff all the time... often putting Alice down for being so clueless about everything.
Enter Sheryl (Juliette Lewis) the seventeen year old flirty girl who lives next door to Alice. Evidently, she's got all this sex and boys and attraction stuff locked down with her endless parade of dates, flirty moves, captivating perfume, etc...
Alice secretly watches Sheryl from her bedroom window and wishes she could be her. She emulates Sheryl's scarves from Woolworth's...the music Sheryl listens to...her perfume. Needless to say, she is obsessed with her seventeen year old neighbor.
Then we have Sheryl's new boyfriend (played by C. Thomas Howell)...a guy with a shadowy past (wrong side of the tracks, and all that) who works (where else?) at the bowling alley. Sheryl and her new boyfriend are "in love" despite Sheryl's mom not approving of this relationship. Alice, of course, is infatuated with the union...believing in "true love". She ends up befriending Sheryl...helping to keep her "secrets" about the relationship, and growing more and more obsessed with, not only the girl next door, but the girl next door's love life with her bowling alley boyfriend.
Okay, at this point, you can probably figure out that this movie is cliche with a capital "C." And yes...you are right. It is an incredibly cliche and contrived plot...not really an ounce of originality in it, aside from the young girl next door being obsessed with it all and narrating about it...including her own feelings about life and love (along with her own parents apparent lack of love life), etc. But this is what saves the movie; this unique element of the young girl narrating what is, otherwise, a very thin-plotted cliche of a story.
Aside from all that, the movie is quite enjoyable to watch. It's almost refreshing, with all the newer in-your-face garbage that's out nowadays. But don't expect anything really deep, or any sort of wow-like twist at the end. It's just a "slice of life," plain and simple. With some good period music and decent acting. And charm. Charm which is hard to come by these days, so yea...that's worth something. I definitely do recommend the movie...
I only gave the movie a seven, though, because I think it all seems a little too contrived sometimes and there should have been some more depth. Like...why was Sheryl's mom so upset her daughter was seeing this guy? Honestly, he didn't seem like such a bad guy, so it didn't make a lot of sense.
And why does Alice keep hanging out with these kids (the ones who are her own age) who aren't very nice to her? One boy even forces a frog into her mouth at a birthday party! So that didn't seem entirely genuine, but oh well.. (All I could wonder was, did the actress really have that frog in her mouth)? And here's something else I wondered: Why don't these girls have any hobbies or interests (painting, music, sports) aside from sex and boys?
The movie is narrated by a cute, very believable ten or eleven year old girl named Alice (Ally, played by Duskhu who does an amazing job) from Long Island on the verge of discovering her own place in the world when it comes to boys and sex and all that usual "coming of age" fodder. After all, her friends talk about that sort of stuff all the time... often putting Alice down for being so clueless about everything.
Enter Sheryl (Juliette Lewis) the seventeen year old flirty girl who lives next door to Alice. Evidently, she's got all this sex and boys and attraction stuff locked down with her endless parade of dates, flirty moves, captivating perfume, etc...
Alice secretly watches Sheryl from her bedroom window and wishes she could be her. She emulates Sheryl's scarves from Woolworth's...the music Sheryl listens to...her perfume. Needless to say, she is obsessed with her seventeen year old neighbor.
Then we have Sheryl's new boyfriend (played by C. Thomas Howell)...a guy with a shadowy past (wrong side of the tracks, and all that) who works (where else?) at the bowling alley. Sheryl and her new boyfriend are "in love" despite Sheryl's mom not approving of this relationship. Alice, of course, is infatuated with the union...believing in "true love". She ends up befriending Sheryl...helping to keep her "secrets" about the relationship, and growing more and more obsessed with, not only the girl next door, but the girl next door's love life with her bowling alley boyfriend.
Okay, at this point, you can probably figure out that this movie is cliche with a capital "C." And yes...you are right. It is an incredibly cliche and contrived plot...not really an ounce of originality in it, aside from the young girl next door being obsessed with it all and narrating about it...including her own feelings about life and love (along with her own parents apparent lack of love life), etc. But this is what saves the movie; this unique element of the young girl narrating what is, otherwise, a very thin-plotted cliche of a story.
Aside from all that, the movie is quite enjoyable to watch. It's almost refreshing, with all the newer in-your-face garbage that's out nowadays. But don't expect anything really deep, or any sort of wow-like twist at the end. It's just a "slice of life," plain and simple. With some good period music and decent acting. And charm. Charm which is hard to come by these days, so yea...that's worth something. I definitely do recommend the movie...
I only gave the movie a seven, though, because I think it all seems a little too contrived sometimes and there should have been some more depth. Like...why was Sheryl's mom so upset her daughter was seeing this guy? Honestly, he didn't seem like such a bad guy, so it didn't make a lot of sense.
And why does Alice keep hanging out with these kids (the ones who are her own age) who aren't very nice to her? One boy even forces a frog into her mouth at a birthday party! So that didn't seem entirely genuine, but oh well.. (All I could wonder was, did the actress really have that frog in her mouth)? And here's something else I wondered: Why don't these girls have any hobbies or interests (painting, music, sports) aside from sex and boys?