Puberty
Blues is a very low-budget Australian film made in 1981, and
is ample evidence that other countries fall victim to the
lure of the silly teen flick. While this particular film does
have fairly serious intent, the result is really not much
more than a R-rated version of an eighties after-school special,
or of an episode of the Canadian series Degrassi High. The
film tries to be cute, and is far too soft about the nature
of teenage lifestyles for my liking.
The
story takes place mainly on the beaches of Australia, where
many of the local guys and gals hang out. Two in particular,
Debbie and Sue, desire to be accepted by the supposedly cool
crowd, and they do, because they actually helped two of the
studly surfer guys cheat on a test. So now they experience
all what they've always wished for: boyfriends, sex, drinking,
drugs, and being out all hours of the night. Yet problems
arise, not least being the threat of pregnancy for one of
the girls. And the two of them are unsure whether or not there
really is anything substantial in their aimless lives.
I
have the feeling that director Bruce Beresford must have had
some lapse of sanity while making this picture. The direction
is not particularly inventive, and neither the plot nor the
actors are particularly memorable. These flaws are more glaring
when you realize that Beresford has directed a classic before
(Breaker Morant) and after (Tender Mercies) Puberty Blues.
You might say that Beresford was attempting to go for the
seemingly plotless feel that he succeeded with creating in
Tender Mercies, but I think that Beresford must have had the
delusion that he was a really hep cat, and therefore decided
to hang out with the surfer dudes and ogle the young chicks
in their bikinis. And we get visual evidence of this in an
adoring montage of the moves of those very same surfer dudes
and the flesh of those very same young chicks. We also get
lots of typical scenes of kids trying not to get caught with
cans of beer in their possession, lots of scenes at drive-ins
and other places of abject boredom, and a patently ridiculous
fight scene that made me wonder if there weren't in fact two
Bruce Beresfords: one who directed all these great movies,
and the other, who directed this one.
Actually,
the biggest problem for a misanthrope like me is not the direction,
or the director, but the screenplay. The film can only throw
softballs at these losers, mainly because the film is aimed
at similar losers, er, I mean teenagers, so of course we just
cannot dare to insult them and their lifestyles too much.
There
is potential in the content; much is made of the inherent
sexism involved in the organization of these kids. While the
men can do what they want, the women have to be second-class
and they better like it, dammit. The most extreme example
of this involves an outcast of the group, who is so desperate
for attention from the cool guys that she actually participates
in what I`d classify as a gang rape, where three guys actually
take turns having sex with her. Of course, we do not actually
witness this horror in ways which may make us really question
these kids. The film treats this almost as frivolity. Sex
itself is seen here as a male activity: when one of the girls
actually loses her virginity to the first of two boyfriends
she will have during the film's running time, she is practically
thrown on the floor so he can attempt, if I may be crass,
to shove it to her, while she winces in pain. I thought this
was a very painful scene to view, although everybody else
involved in the production seemed to believe this had the
potential for comedy.
The
film also can only manage a half-hearted attempt to show how
boring these people really are. All they do is surf, drink,
and screw; they do not have any conversations of any meaning
or importance, they don`t have any real quirks that I could
remember, and they do not seem to have any discernable future
goals. A good film could be made which analyses these facts,
but this film only bores us, because there is no point to
make. The script does not attempt to give any depth to the
situation, and that is because the creators were just plain
scared to do it, without potentially angering the teenage
audience. If you really want to make a film which condemns,
or at least criticises, teenage lifestyles, you have to be
a pretty unsentimental individual, one who has not been seduced
by the cult of youth. Bresford has fallen for that particular
temptress. But you can also make a film which does appeal
to teenagers, and yet still be witty and entertaining (The
Breakfast Club and Ten Things I hate About You are decent
examples). But Bresford has lost that particular challenge
as well. So, overall, Puberty Blues is nothing more than a
fluffy trifle which will be far overshadowed by both better
Bresford movies, and better teen movies.
David
Macdonald
David
Macdonald's Movie Reviews
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