Teen Movies: The Class Of 2013
From the Prom Couple to the Most Likely To Succeed, let's look back at the best and worst of this year's graduating class.
Worst Attitude Problem: How I Live Now
Another post-apocalyptic YA book adaptation, How I Live Now leans closer to Tomorrow When The War Began with WWIII erupting while Daisy (Saorise Ronan), an American, goes to stay with her cousins in the UK. A change in style for director Kevin Macdonald (Touching The Void, Last King Of Scotland), the English countryside is shot beautifully and while youth oriented, the movie doesn’t shy away from the brutality of war.
Daisy is all attitude. And in case her barbarous tongue wasn’t enough to demonstrate the chip on her shoulder, she listens to loud music, wears dark eye make-up, and has piercings. *cue drama*
The sense of catastrophe and internal conflict suffered by a teenage girl questioning her identity is touched upon, but Daisy’s instability is elided for a rapidly intense romance between her and her cousin. By usurping character development for the romantic plot, Daisy becomes wildly inconsistent and unlikeable, with few redemptive features and all the mood swings. Rebelling against authority, taking on responsibility and feeling like an outsider are tropes given the teen treatment here, but nothing new is brought to the genre.
Like Daisy, I’d be hot for the handsome young chap/animal whisperer if I saw him bobbing around shirtless in a picturesque lake, too. But if he was my cousin, I’d probably keep that fact to myself rather than, you know, fuck him in a barn. Maybe I’m being too judgy; it is wartime after all, and you can’t help who you love.
Coming Up: Most Hardworking…