Never Cry Werewolf
Director Brenton Spencer brings us this gripping coming-of-age tale for girls. A young woman is on her own for the first time and must deal with the advances of both older and younger men while struggling with her own quest for self-actualization in a deceivingly oppressive patriarchal world. Because the film is clearly targeted toward young women in a state of confusion about their place in a man’s world, the director has cleverly surrounded our protagonist primarily with male co-stars and absent female friends and family members. This is clearly an effort to show how alone and isolated Loren (played expertly by Nina Dobrev, star of the underground smash hit Degrassi: the Next Generation) feels in this awkward teenage phase, no longer a girl, not yet a woman, but still viewed as a prize or possession by the film’s adult male characters with no one to guide her. The clear exception to the stereotype of men as drooling animals bent on sexual conquest is the famous homosexual actor Redd Tucker (played by Kevin Sorbo fresh from the set of his award-winning historical docu-drama Meat the Spartans) who at first refuses to help Loren for fear that his secret might be exposed.
As Loren learns to reject the control of the older men who spend too much time drooling over her, she reveals herself to be stronger and more comfortable with making her own decisions than we were originally led to believe. Though the director clearly needs more time analyzing modern ideas about feminism, he should be commended on his success at showing Loren as the protagonist of the film, not a secondary player like her acceptable but relatively powerless and nonthreatening male counterparts - the teenage boy who’s beginning to grow hair in odd places, the younger brother who finally learns to respect her as a person, and the neckerchief’d Sorbo who finally supports Loren after realizing how similar their plights have been. All in all, a rare and inspiring look at a young woman learning to make her way in a flawed world.
And there’s like, werewolves, or something. Five Stars.