Daydream
Nation
Teen
angst is always a dangerous balancing act for filmmakers. Daydream
Nation is just the latest of this crowded subgenre, skewing a bit in the
surreal direction but also having some very well-drawn characters mixed in
with some who are – well less so. It ends up being sort of like Donnie
Darko meets Easy A – an odd fit, but not without certain
intrigue.
Perhaps the biggest fault in the movie is that the lead character – though
she has some fascinating shades – is not nearly as consistently interesting
as some of the others orbiting around her. Part of this comes from the fact
that her personality seems to change with the wind. She is an insecure
loner in one scene, a heartless ball-buster in another, alternately sappily
romantic and staggeringly cynical – essentially she is something of an
enigma.
This
enigma is Caroline Wexler – well played by Kat Jennings (Thor),
who has portrayed similar characters before but always does it well. As
Daydream Nation opens, Caroline’s dad takes the city girl and moves
her to a small town where the quiet lives of desperation mask a toxically
unhappy undertow.
This
is one of those indie movie small towns that is a bit over the top in its
evil and peril. Beyond the normal boredoms of small town life, this one is
being plagued by both an out-of-control industrial fire and a serial killer,
two plot tangents which are neither explored enough to merit their
inclusion in the story. They are more symbolic of the rot of the town –
which is okay, I suppose, but they do not add much to the actual plotline.
Caroline, a beautiful but caustically unhappy girl, starts out trying to fit
in somewhat, but eventually decides to be a cruise missile to the heart of
the hypocrisy of the town. She seduces her English teacher – played with
charming sleaziness by the always good Josh Lucas – though as the story goes
on the character is essentially emasculated and becomes a much less
interesting, pathetic character.
At
the same time, Caroline is being shyly pursued by Thurston, a neurotic local
kid with a crush – played by Reece Thompson. Early on Caroline leads him
on, but she comes to actually kinda like him and his eccentric mother
(played by a wonderfully game Andie McDowell.)
There is an awful lot of stuff going on in the film – sometimes to the point
that writer and first-time director Michael Goldbach (who also wrote a
similarly stimulating-but-uneven 2004 film called Childstar) loses
control of his plot. However, he does have an extremely good ear for
dialogue and certain subplots – like the charmingly awkward attraction
between Caroline’s father and Thurston’s mother – give the film a
sweetly off-kilter reality.
Sadly, Caroline’s two major relationships are not quite so arresting, her
halting courtship with Thurston feels a little rushed – we never quite know
why she changes her mind and decides to give him a chance. At the same
time, the relationship with the teacher goes completely off the rails,
turning an interesting if morally-questionable character into a bit of a
parody.
Still, strong performances by Dennings (even if her character is written
unevenly, she sells it consistently), Thompson, McDowell, Ian Robison (as
Caroline’s dad) and a heartbreaking Katie Boland (as an insecure classmate
with a crush) make Daydream Nation worth the visit.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2011 PopEntertainment.com.
All rights reserved. Posted: May 6, 2011.
