By Athena Bellas
There are so many incredible teen films streaming in Australia right now. So many, in fact, that I was overwhelmed by the number as I sat down to write this piece! While well-known films like Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008), Mean Girls (Mark Waters, 2004), Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1988) and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (Susan Johnson, 2018) are incredible and worthy of lots of analysis, I want to draw attention to some lesser-known movies about girls. These films are produced in a variety of national contexts, not just the U.S., and they provide diverse representations of teenage girls across time and space.
We tend to hold on to a range of limiting ideas around films about girls: what they are capable of representing, who their audiences are, and the effects these representations have on young people. Films about girls often get connected to the disparagement of ‘chick flicks’ and ‘guilty pleasures,’ and are frequently accused of being shallow, tasteless, or concerned with frivolous themes like first crushes, high school drama, rebellion against parents, and the awkwardness of trying to fit in. Sexism and ageism are often at play in these sorts of assessments, with adult tastes and adult stories seen as more refined or important.
On top of this, as Catherine Driscoll notes, we often regard adolescence as ‘both object of training and subject of crisis’ (2011, 4). This is often reflected in the critical material that often judges ‘films in the genre as good or bad in terms of a responsibility to represent adolescence in a way that would be good for adolescents’ (original emphasis 2011, 4). This is particularly the case with teenage girls, who are often seen as especially fragile and constantly at risk of failing to be ‘good’ young woman. For example, psychotherapist Dr Mary Pipher’s 1994 New York Times bestselling book Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls recommends that girls need constant and close surveillance and guidance from adults to prevent them from falling prey to media that encourages them to become ‘self-destructive’ and ‘self-absorbed.’ Accounts such as Pipher’s inform conversations about the media that position girls as simple victims that we can confidently make prognoses about; that we can judge or pity for straying from the path of ‘good’ girlhood from a ‘superior’ adult position. This really limits how girls are thought about, engaged with, and in turn, represented.
A potentially more productive approach to media images of girls would pay attention to the complex interplay of empowerment and disempowerment, conventional and alternative, fragility and agency, conformity and resistance – both within the films themselves, and within young audiences too. Instead of seeing teen films as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’, we can consider them as complicated works of art that have a lot of possible agendas and ideas to engage with. As film theorist Felicity Colman writes, ‘the point of teen is the configuration of inventions – actions that are not routine performances of pre-codes, but hold movement in surprise, in possibility, in anger, in awe – of potential mentalities’ (2005, 357). Opening up our thinking about these films in this way lets us perceive their multiple expressions of meaning. Even more importantly, it can also expand our understanding of girlhood, beyond limiting stereotypes.
Here are five amazing movies about girls that reflect the complexity and potential of teen representations:
The Edge of Seventeen, directed by Kelly Fremon Craig (2016). Now streaming on Netflix and Stan
Still from Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig, 2016). [Alt text: Two white teenage girls, one blonde and one brunette, both in jeans and sweaters, sit on the edge of a street gutter with their heads in their hands, with a look on angst on their faces.]
Kelly Fremon Craig’s debut feature film perfectly captures the awkward and intensely emotional period of teenage-hood, without any moralising about the problems with ‘kids today.’ Instead, Craig simply allows the action of adolescence to unfold before the camera. The film follows the story of Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), who is trying to navigate the shaky ground of high school friendships as well as her fractured home life. Nadine’s loneliness and angst in this difficult journey is palpable and visceral. Whether you’re a teenager or not, as a viewer you can’t help but be drawn into and relate to her emotional world.
A Company of Wolves, directed by Neil Jordan (1984). Now streaming on SBS on Demand
Still from the film A Company of Wolves (Neil Jordan, 1984). [Alt text: A young white girl in the woods, wearing a red cape, with curly brown hair and a shocked expression on her face. Trees, branches and bushes are scattered around the image throughout the foreground and background.]
Based on Angela Carter’s well-known feminist short story of the same name, A Company of Wolves presents a bold re-telling of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. In this film, the protagonist Rosaleen (Sarah Patterson) journeys into the dangerous forest and meets a wolf. From here, the story abandons the version of the tale we know so well, in which the girl is almost devoured by the wolf only to be saved by a man and reminded to ‘never stray from the straight path again.’ Instead, Rosaleen undergoes her own powerful, beastly transformation; as Carter writes, ‘she knew she was nobody’s meat.’ An iconic reimagining of the fairy tale through a feminist lens.
Girlhood, directed by Céline Sciamma (2014). Now streaming on Kanopy
Still from the film Girlhood (Celine Sciamma, 2014). [Alt text: An image of four Black womxn with their arms around each other, hugging and smiling, looking in different directions. A bluish light illuminates them, and it appears to be a moving shot, as some areas are slightly blurry.]
Anyone who has recently seen and loved Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) should check out her earlier film, Girlhood (2014). The film is set on the outskirts of Paris, and follows the story of sixteen-year-old Marieme (Karidja Toré). Isolated and angry about her life circumstances, she joins a girl gang. In doing so, she finds connection and community with other working-class Black girls with whom she can identify. Sciamma records the ups and downs of their friendship in a non-judgemental way, representing the complexity and nuanced experience of girls of colour in contemporary French culture.
Belle, directed by Amma Asante (2013). Now streaming on Stan
Still from the film Belle (Amma Asante 2013). [Alt text: Two young womxn are sitting next to each other in gilded chairs, both in ornate 18th-Century-style gowns and elaborate up-dos. One is white, and looking slyly at the other, Belle, a light-skinned biracial womxn, who is staring straight into the camera.]
This lush costume drama is inspired by the only known portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle, painted by David Martin around 1776 in North London. Belle was biracial, and the ‘illegitimate’ daughter of Sir John Lindsay and an African woman named Maria Bell. For many of her formative years, Belle was raised alongside her white cousin Elizabeth Murray under the care of their relative Lord Chief Justice Mansfield. It was highly unusual for a biracial ‘illegitimate’ child to be accepted into a powerful aristocratic British family, which is part of the reason why Belle’s story continues to intrigue. While little is known about the details of her life, Asante’s impressive work of historical fiction breathes life into Belle’s coming-of-age story, pursuing the possibility that she was a key influence in Mansfield’s rulings that led to the abolition of slavery.
Volcano, directed by Jayro Bustamante (2015). Now streaming on SBS on Demand
Still from the film Volcano (Jayro Bustamante, 2015). [Alt text: A Guatemalan mother-daughter duo stand on a craggy mountain, looking into the distance with serious expressions. The daughter, long dark hair moving in the wind, stands in the foreground, and wears a a blue and red dress, with a pink floral apron-style garment on top. The mother, standing in the background, wears similar clothing in green and blue colours.]
Volcano is an incredible Guatemalan mother-daughter film, presented in the Indigenous Mayan language of Kaqchikel. The adolescent heroine, Maria (Maria Mercedes Coroy) rebels against her parents and societal expectations when she refuses an arranged marriage. The film confronts a range of social taboos active within the region, including around teen pregnancy, racism, and reproductive rights. It also explores the dynamic between mothers and daughters in the face of these taboos, as the two characters find ways to express their power and agency. Maria is outwardly quiet, but we witness her inward rite-of-passage journey that simmers just below the surface. As the director stated in an interview: ‘her force is like the force of a volcano. It’s interior. Her character wanted to erupt’ (Bustamante quoted in Miranda 2016, para 18).
Bibliography
Carter, A. [1979] 1996. ‘The Company of Wolves.’ In Burning Your Boats: Collected Short Stories, 212-220. London: Vintage.
Colman, F. 2005. ‘Hit Me Harder: The Transversality of Becoming-Adolescent.’ Women: A Cultural Review 16.3: 356-371.
Driscoll, C. 2011. Teen Film: A Critical Introduction. Oxford and New York: Berg.
Miranda, C. 2016. ‘Q&A: How Ixcanul director Jayro Bustamante found a feminist tale on a Guatemalan volcano.’ Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-jayro-bustamante-ixcanul-guatemala-palm-springs-film-fest-20160106-column.html
Pipher, M. 1994. Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. New York: Putnam.
Images used for review/criticism purposes under ‘fair dealing’ exception under Australian copyright law.