His expression is almost vacant, but you can feel an uneasiness lurking under that facade. He wanders around, seemingly aimless, but looking for something. He's both innocent and wordly-wise, walking sure and yet unsteady on that tightrope of adolescence.
This is the millennial young man - not confused and angry like the generation before him; not exploding into a spectacular, drug-addled bonfire as they did in generations before; not leaving a trail of scandals and illegitimate children behind him as he makes his way to adulthood. If films like Boyhood, Mommy and Gueros are any indication, rebellion in the 2000s is not quite what it used to be. Now, a young man's most provocative act is to be normal.
Admittedly Steve, the boy hero ofMommy, with his abusive language and anger issues doesn't seem particularly normal. His mother is repeatedly told to have him admitted into a psychiatric facility, which should be a sign that Steve's behaviour is off the rails. Yet, if you think about it and director Xavier Dolan makes sure you do, Steve isn't crazy. He isn't the diabolical nightmare that Kevin is in We Need To Talk About Kevin. Yes, Steve's language is startlingly colourful, but then so is his mother's. It makes sense that he would speak (and behave) with about as much decorum as she does.
One of Dolan's many achievements inMommy is his ability to make Steve, his mother Ann and their neighbour Kyla come across as almost normal. While these three are anything but cookie-cutter residents of suburbia, Dolan highlights the details that make these troubled characters like everyone else. For example, watching Steve, his mother and Kyla dancing and singing along to Celine Dion, you can't help but feel a certain kinship. The more time you spend with Steve, the more innocent he seems.
The more you see Steve, the more he seems to be a regular teenager. Dolan shows that Steve's brash swagger and abuse-flecked speech are adolescent attempts at grabbing attention. The moment he realises he's going too far - like when he goads his neighbour Kyla and she lashes out at him - Steve backs down immediately. Suddenly, he isn't the weird and crazy one; he's just a boy. One who, like all hyperactive kids, needs to be kept occupied. Unfortunately for everyone in Mommy, he isn't.
Steve is just filled with good old fashioned rage, the sort that at one time was synonymous with teenagers and something that Boyhood's Mason doesn't seem to possess despite all the trials Mason survives. Steve's early acts of rebellion: trashing a shopping cart, singing a ballad at a karaoke bar. Stung by circumstances, the reactions become more extreme, but Dolan keeps reminding us of the fact that Steve is ultimately just a confused, angry and often bored boy, rather than someone who needs a straitjacket.
In the scale of delinquency, Steve is an extreme. Sitting securely in the middle of that scale are the young men in Gueros, by Alonso Ruizpalacios. Frede and Santos are young men who are supposed to be students in Mexico City, but there's a strike on at the university. As far as Frede is concerned, he's "on strike from the strike". His interest in the politics that are raging through the university is limited to the gorgeous Ana, who is leading the student protests. While in earlier generations, joining the protest and finding one's politics would be considered heroic, the millennial boy is much more tame. For Frede, just cruising on the sidelines of the protest and ogling at Ana is enough.
The two men are joined by Frede's younger brother, Tomas. Tomas is sent away from home because his mother says she can't handle him anymore. What's he been doing? Throwing water balloons at people. Near the end of Gueros, you see a far more ominous example of what a boy can throw at people, but for most of Ruizpalacios's film, this trio ambles about innocently and aimlessly.
Frede may be stealing electricity from his neighbour and living in a dilapidated apartment, but this isn't poverty that scars the survivor. It's quite obvious that Frede is anything but traumatised, his occasional panic attacks notwithstanding. The anxiety that laces the lives of the young men is simply the dread of having to grow up. For Frede and Santos, life is simply the ennui of the reasonably privileged middle and upper classes. At least Tomas has his fandom for a mysterious singer named Epigmenio Cruz that informs his character. Frede and Santos just float through the city with their sense of humour, a vague sense of anxiety and their boredom.
A similar ennui gleams in Boyhood, which sees a cute six-year-old kid grow into a gangly near-adult. Director Richard Linklater's conceit in Boyhood was to film the same cast over time, allowing the child actors to transition into adolescence and following the changes that creep into the grown-up actors. The film was shot in 39 days spread over 12 years. Aside from proving that Ethan Hawke is the Dorian Gray of our times - the man barely wrinkles, let alone age - Boyhood shows the regular life of a regular American kid, named Mason.
It's not that Mason's life is uncomplicated. He has a nomadic childhood and has to deal with abusive stepfathers, among other things. However, the story doesn't move as much as glides over the years and Mason responds to everything that the universe throws at him with equanimity. His parents are a stark contrast to his unprovocative demeanour. His mother reels herself in and out of terrible relationships. His father is charming, irresponsible and utterly unreliable. Particularly next to his parents' behaviour, Mason often seems like more mature and grounded than the adults. There's the occasional joint and sulk, but that is normal for a teenager.
Watching the young men in these three films, you can't help wondering whether the fight has gone out of the boys. Perhaps they don't think there are any battles to fight. Perhaps after generations of being "bad boys" and trying to overturn establishments and status quo, the boys have tired of rebellion. Or maybe they've just calmed down.
Whatever the reason, the boys are sweet, lovable and they're also in danger of becoming boring. Because right next to them are young girls like the angry, rebellious gang in Girlhoodand the chador-clad vampire of A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. Their stories aren't being told with as much nuance and expertise as the boys' are at the moment, but it's just a matter of time before that changes. If the films are any indication, it's time to watch out for the girls. They're raring to do a lot more than the norm-hugging boys.
0 Comments