When I first got "Growing Edge", I briefly browsed the lineup and plot introduction, and thought it was a very ordinary youth movie. Because the director and heroine seem to be unknown, there is no name in the cast except Woody Harrelson. The story doesn't have much new ideas, it's similar to other youth films, that is, the story of an adolescent girl's rebellion and finally reconciling with the world.
But with such a film, the director was nominated for the Best New Director Award at the Directors Guild of America Award, and the heroine was nominated for the Golden Globe Award and the American Critics' Choice Film Award for Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy Film.
After seeing these awards, I took a look at the profile of the heroine Hailee Steinfeld with great interest. It turns out that the heroine is not as unknown as I imagined. Six years ago, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the Coen Brothers' "The Thunder".
What? Is that the deep, introverted, shrewd and sophisticated hardcore loli in "Thunderbolt"? Why can't I get in touch with the sensitive, crazy high school girl in front of me!
On the contrary, when the heroine first appeared, what I immediately thought of was Marion Cotillard, the heroine of the French movie "Dare to Love". Not only does she look a little like her, but her crazy and bold rebellious energy is really not to be missed. .
When the heroine Nadine was a kindergarten loli, she had already begun to look at the world hostilely. She refuses to go to school, and often fights with her mother in and out of the car in front of the kindergarten; she hates her brother, because he can easily become everyone's darling; she was bullied by her peers in kindergarten and endured no matter Action or verbal bullying. So much so that she describes her childhood as a dumpster and a nightmare.
Fortunately, she has two comforts - her father and her good friend Krista. These two people became the most important support for her childhood. But what's more cruel is that the first half of the movie is about how she lost the process of these two people.
Her father is generous and humorous, and can often turn the cloudy and sunny heroine who is standing upright at every turn. So the heroine would say to him, "I wish you were a child too!" But like all fates that go against you, not only did the father not become a child, he also died suddenly in the car.
She and Krista talked about everything, and they were inseparable. But even the best friend will one day breed a desire for another kind of friend, a boyfriend. And the fact that the heroine vomits blood the most is that her good friend's first boyfriend is none other than the brother she sees as a thorn in the flesh.
Since then, she has embarked on a road to find new comfort and a road to growth.
This is actually a tortuous journey of how a girl changes her perspective to see the world. Before the age of seventeen, she always believed that everyone else in the world was better off than her, and that she suffered more grievances than everyone else in the world; but after the age of seventeen, she finally realized that, Everyone has their own fucking life, and the only way to deal with it is to embrace it all.
What prompted her to accept all of this was her disillusionment one after another. These fantasies of hers are actually her wishful predictions about the beauty and ugliness, good and evil of everyone around her. For example, she thought her dream lover was a warm and romantic Prince Charming, but it turned out to be a playboy who only pursued a night of pleasure; she thought her teacher was a cold and withdrawn bald middle-aged man, but she did not expect that he was a man with a Husband of a warm and small family; she thought her brother was a flatterer who was obsessed with competing with her for love, but he did not expect that he was a family-friendly man who silently assumed family responsibilities.
These people did not deliberately hide their true colors, but the heroine put labels on all the people around her for her own sake, regardless of whether these labels correspond to genuine products.
When the label fell off and the truth was revealed, the heroine finally came out of the world she built for herself and found the right way to open up her life.
The appearance of cute Korean boys did not bring too much dramatic conflict, but it undoubtedly added a strong touch to the warm color of this film. He is a tall, handsome and wealthy person who can no longer be qualified, but he doesn't have a bit of flirtatiousness. He just likes to paint quietly at home alone. When he was chasing girls, he was a little cautious and didn't dare to shoot, but he was very frank and sincere. The animated short film he shot is definitely a masterpiece of otaku obscenity.
Speaking of which, you may think that the keynote of this movie is delicate, gentle and emotional, but the comedy style unique to youth films is interspersed throughout.
The heroine's naughty spirit of deliberately locking the door and not getting out of the car when she was a little loli made people laugh. Her father called her "fart in their backpack", which made me laugh out loud. Later, in the girls' boudoir The dialogue is even more neurotic and funny.
I am extremely happy to hear that American youth films have no taboos on teenage pornography, especially for girls to openly talk about their sexual fantasies about boys, which is simply unimaginable in China. The biggest feature of adolescence is sexual maturity and curiosity about sex. I'm afraid I don't have a complete adolescence without discussing sexual topics with my classmates.
The most wonderful humorous scene in this film is the dialogue between the heroine and Mr. Woody. Every time the heroine goes to chat with Mr. Woody, she tries her best to give the teacher a tough look, but every time she is coldly blocked by Mr. Woody's cold humor. The heroine's personality is flamboyant and impulsive, full of enthusiasm, and she is always overwhelmed by her words; but Mr. Woody is worthy of being an old river and lake. The little girl was speechless. His stern face telling jokes, and his tolerant attitude in front of angry and domineering students really made people feel that it was a blessing to have such a teacher.
Of course, going back to the film's growing up theme, it's not just teenagers who need to grow up, there are many adults as well. There are many people in this world who are in their thirties and cannot stand on their own. They are still confused when they are over, and they still resent their fate when they know their destiny. As a recent best-selling book said, most adults are still infants in their psychological level. The most typical character in this film is the mother of the heroine. She has a strong desire to control her daughter from childhood to adulthood. As long as her daughter does something deviant, she will be hysterical and the bad mood will be unstoppable. When her husband was alive, she needed her husband to stabilize the situation, and when her husband was away, she needed her son to clean up the mess.
The classic scene of the movie is that after the heroine made a mess in the house, she called her son for help. After the son came back, he had a dispute with her. She said, "I am the parent here, not you", and the son asked back, "Then you Why do you keep calling me?" She then woke up. That's where the few text messages she wanted to send back towards the end of the film - she finally put aside her desire to control her daughter, and was willing to let her go to pursue her own life.
The movie clearly and truly shows the pains of a young girl's growth, but the various warm scenes and humorous passages exude positive energy in the slightest, and the various reconciliations between the characters at the end are also based on their relationship. mutual understanding and tolerance. So, it's not just a movie for teenagers, it's a movie for parents of teenage kids. Everyone needs to support each other, not you to push me out of that self-centered circle, including children, including adults, including ourselves.
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