TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2015 // A FILM REVIEW OF "BEING 14"
The 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, runs April 15th-26th and features hundreds of features, documentaries, short films, and special events all throughout downtown New York City. The ArtsWire Weekly's three featured reviewers Mateo, Derek, & Chrisena are hitting the festival and bringing the reviews right to you! What you should see and what you should skip...
Being a teenager sucks. It just does. There must be some sort of genetic trigger that goes off at 14 that makes teens argumentative, rebellious and mean. In BEING 14, we are introduced to a clique of girls. Jade is in love with her first serious physical connection, to the point of obsession, but Reza wants nothing to do with her. Sarah is the party going leader, with sharp eyebrows and an even sharper tongue. She is the one who decides who is cool and who is not. Then there is Louise who has run away to her grandmother’s house to escape her helicopter parents. At some point Sarah takes a joke too far with Jade in the lunchroom and the friendship is broken. The film then takes a turn showing the intense cruelty that Jade receives. She walks down the hallway to a chorus of "whore" and can't escape the giggles. Then we see the other girls, miserable as well, drinking dangerous amounts of alcohol and allowing boys to manhandle them. Clips of sobbing teens are weaved through the entire film like a tidal wave of incessant whining.
I don't know what the point of the film was. The girls start as friends. Then (curly haired girl) gets kicked out of the clique. Bullying ensues. Finally, the girls become friends again. Why did I watch this for over an hour?
Surely the film wanted to say something more sophisticated than, "it sucks being 14". But I'm not quite sure.
VERDICT: SKIP IT
DIRECTED BY Helene Zimmer WRITTEN BY Helene Zimmer STARRING Athalia Routier, Galatea Bellugi, Najaa Bensaid, Kevin Chateau, Francoise Lebrun, Louis Jacq
Playing as part of The 2015 Tribeca International Film Festival. For tickets & schedules: http://www.tribecafilm.com
CHRISENA RICCI once went to a costume party dressed in an all black dress and black wig. No one there could guess who she was. So she shouted out, "I'm Christina Ricci, without the T or I and add an E!" Everyone stood there confused, she was annoyed, so she stormed off. She never returned to that apartment ever again. Which is fine, because she later realized she was at the wrong party. She now lives in New York City.