Films about teen girls more grown-up
By Claudia Puig
USA Today
Audiences are being treated to a different sort of white-knuckle thrill ride at the movies. Call it the emotional roller coaster. And the characters riding its ups and downs are largely teenage girls.
Where the focus of teen flicks has often been more male-oriented, currently more than a half-dozen movies, from tiny independents to major studio releases, are focusing on the inner lives of young women. Several films made outside the studio system have explored female angst with a vengeance:
- "Thirteen," the in-your-face true-life horror story of seventh-grade girls desperate to fit in.
- "Whale Rider," the coming of age of a 13-year-old Maori girl who becomes chief of her tribe.
- "The Magdalene Sisters," which examines the brutal treatment of teenage unwed mothers and rape victims at the hands of nuns.
Advertiser library photo • April 2003
Kicking off the season of the teen girl was "Bend it Like Beckham," which chronicled the clash of a British teenager's dreams of playing soccer with the demands of her traditional Punjabi family. Then there was "I Capture the Castle," based on the 1948 Dodie Smith novel which chronicles a 17-year-old's quest for love.
The film "Bend it Like Beckham" examined the clash between a girl's dreams of playing soccer and her family's demands.
It smelled a bit more like teen spirit among bigger studio releases such as "Freaky Friday," "How to Deal," "The Lizzie McGuire Movie" and "What a Girl Wants." But even these light comedies tackled such heavy issues as fractured families, youthful rebellion and teen pregnancy.
The psyche of the teenage girl has never been probed quite as persistently as it has in recent cinema. It's a welcome change from more predictable teen fare, say actors and moviegoers.
"There have just been so many horrible teen movies that are really unrealistic; people just kind of got sick of them and wanted to see how it really was," says Evan Rachel Wood, whose starring character in "Thirteen" evolves from an innocent young teen to one who steals, cuts herself and takes drugs.
We've seen movies about teenage boys that explore difficult emotions and weighty topics ("River's Edge," "Dead Poets Society," "Emperor's Club"), but rarely have such tough subjects been tackled on screen with girls in the lead.
The trend is helped along by economics, as well as by improved opportunities for women in film.
"There's always been an audience out there for it, but now you're getting the product," says Gitesh Pandya, editor of boxofficeguru.com. "That demographic is a very lucrative demographic when it comes to purchasing power. They not only have a good amount of money to spend themselves, but they can make others spend money too, whether it's parents or boyfriends."
"I Capture the Castle," "Freaky Friday" and "How To Deal" were based on novels written by women, and "Thirteen," "Bend it Like Beckham" and "What a Girl Wants" were written and directed by women.
"A lot of young women are becoming schooled in areas that maybe 10, 20 years ago were not that common for young women: screenwriting, directing, producing," Pandya says. "It's still male-dominated, but your typical young woman is much more exposed to all those areas, so there are more opportunities now to tell stories that people were not telling."
Inexpensive filmmaking equipment also is helping the trend.
"If you have the right brainpower and drive, you can actually take 30 or 40 grand and make a good movie," Pandya says. "In the past you needed an agent or a lot of money. Now, with digital equipment, the limit is just the limit of the mind."
Eileen Walsh, who had her first screen role in "The Magdalene Sisters," believes that with an increase in female screenwriters, more films will reflect the reality of young women's experiences.
"It's nice that movies are focusing on women," Walsh says. "I think it's because more women are writing for women, instead of whining about it on the couch."
