The First Time
So, I just finished watching that Dylan O'Brien movie about teenage virginity that all of those bedroom stills are from? ...and I ordered it in from the library in a fit of fannish compulsion and steeled myself for it to be terrible and cringe-worthy and I have a finely developed embarrassment squick, so there was absolutely cringing, but, I also ended up completely charmed? Like, this is getting mentally shelved in the same place as Easy A and 10 Things I Hate About You.
Like, I feel like Dylan O'Brien carried a lot of this movie, because, a lot of this felt cliché, and there were lines that he said where I went, oh, they are so lucky that they have you, because the performer matters, basically; a good actor can make something mundane or cliché seem new and mesmerising. (...and now I want Epic Tea Time with Alan Rickman to be a yuletide fandom.) Basically, I feel like this could have been an absolutely terrible film with a lesser actor, but, instead I am all... Tyler Hoechlin over Dylan O'Brien, essentially.
Dylan O'Brien's character, Dave, meets a girl named Aubrey on a Friday night and they end up spending all of these chunks of time of their weekend together, having teenage conversations about what they want to do with their life, and who they like, and first times, and just sort of blurting things at each other, almost, like, this is me, this is me, this is me with all of this self-consciousness, fear of rejection alongside it and - it's sort of terrible on one level, because it's like "We're teenagers! Let's be, like, painfully earnest at each other, and, oh, look, she does art" and everyone in this film is so obviously a fake teenager; none of these people are real in that way, but, at the same time I'm watching this going, okay, so, my teenage experience was nothing like this, but, it also absolutely was. I had incredibly earnest conversations with people that I didn't know that well where we tried to figure out what we were doing with the rest of our lives. I wrote, like, hipster poetry and spent more time than I do now working on my vinyl collection, and I had so much less confidence in myself than I do today. ...and I can see my teenage self in this film - for all of its fakeness and everything else that rankles it feels like there's truth in it.
It's kind of awesome. It's not a cinematic masterpiece, but, it is adorable and charming and has a number of good messages in it. I like Aubrey's prickliness and cynicism and - okay, Aubrey is awesome. I love her awareness of the virgin/whore dichotomy and her awareness of STDs and her skirt with pockets and her terrible bangs and I just have a tremendous amount of affection for her. ...and, I may have gotten sidetracked there. Okay, but, I love the way this film handles the first time, because, a lot of how the characters talked about it, their perceptions and experiences were familiar from my teenage days, and I love how this film handled Dave and Aubrey's first time, that it wasn't great, and the fallout from that. I love how this film is all about conversations and is basically a love letter to conversations - seriously, that is all this film is - and that's the take away, basically, that in life and love what matters are those conversations and the people that you want to be having them with. I think that's an awesome message.
So, yeah, I really liked this film, and can really see why someone would have nominated it for yuletide really clearly now, especially with those character nominations, because I am in a place right now, where, yeah, I'd like me some futurefic about Dave and Aubrey, and hell yeah do I want to see more of Jane.
So, this is a surprised and surprisedly enthusiastic rec. You should watch it and maybe think about it for yuletide... and, exposure to tumblr leads me to say that if you have a thing for Dylan O'Brien's hands? Or moles? Or self, in general? This film is relevant to your interests.
This entry was originally posted at http://kiki-eng.dreamwidth.org/100847.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Like, I feel like Dylan O'Brien carried a lot of this movie, because, a lot of this felt cliché, and there were lines that he said where I went, oh, they are so lucky that they have you, because the performer matters, basically; a good actor can make something mundane or cliché seem new and mesmerising. (...and now I want Epic Tea Time with Alan Rickman to be a yuletide fandom.) Basically, I feel like this could have been an absolutely terrible film with a lesser actor, but, instead I am all... Tyler Hoechlin over Dylan O'Brien, essentially.
Dylan O'Brien's character, Dave, meets a girl named Aubrey on a Friday night and they end up spending all of these chunks of time of their weekend together, having teenage conversations about what they want to do with their life, and who they like, and first times, and just sort of blurting things at each other, almost, like, this is me, this is me, this is me with all of this self-consciousness, fear of rejection alongside it and - it's sort of terrible on one level, because it's like "We're teenagers! Let's be, like, painfully earnest at each other, and, oh, look, she does art" and everyone in this film is so obviously a fake teenager; none of these people are real in that way, but, at the same time I'm watching this going, okay, so, my teenage experience was nothing like this, but, it also absolutely was. I had incredibly earnest conversations with people that I didn't know that well where we tried to figure out what we were doing with the rest of our lives. I wrote, like, hipster poetry and spent more time than I do now working on my vinyl collection, and I had so much less confidence in myself than I do today. ...and I can see my teenage self in this film - for all of its fakeness and everything else that rankles it feels like there's truth in it.
It's kind of awesome. It's not a cinematic masterpiece, but, it is adorable and charming and has a number of good messages in it. I like Aubrey's prickliness and cynicism and - okay, Aubrey is awesome. I love her awareness of the virgin/whore dichotomy and her awareness of STDs and her skirt with pockets and her terrible bangs and I just have a tremendous amount of affection for her. ...and, I may have gotten sidetracked there. Okay, but, I love the way this film handles the first time, because, a lot of how the characters talked about it, their perceptions and experiences were familiar from my teenage days, and I love how this film handled Dave and Aubrey's first time, that it wasn't great, and the fallout from that. I love how this film is all about conversations and is basically a love letter to conversations - seriously, that is all this film is - and that's the take away, basically, that in life and love what matters are those conversations and the people that you want to be having them with. I think that's an awesome message.
So, yeah, I really liked this film, and can really see why someone would have nominated it for yuletide really clearly now, especially with those character nominations, because I am in a place right now, where, yeah, I'd like me some futurefic about Dave and Aubrey, and hell yeah do I want to see more of Jane.
So, this is a surprised and surprisedly enthusiastic rec. You should watch it and maybe think about it for yuletide... and, exposure to tumblr leads me to say that if you have a thing for Dylan O'Brien's hands? Or moles? Or self, in general? This film is relevant to your interests.
This entry was originally posted at http://kiki-eng.dreamwidth.org/100847.html. Please comment there using OpenID.