Sunday, March 26, 2006
PREP
This NYTimes Best 1176 Film would be anachronistic if it was not about an anachronism.
They don't have debutantes any more and, so, there are no escorts. There is no 'season' which peaks mid-winter.
is a talk film.
The characters, mostly NYC preppies, live out winter vacation from college with each other. Their life centers around the debutante thing.
They meet and talk and go to dances and talk some more.
An outsider appears who throws it all a bit off balance. He is needed as an escort so that the 4 and 4 balance of young men and women can be maintained.
The chatter is as serious as 19 or 20 year olds can be about who they are and their future.
All that.
Romance is in the air for the outsider and one of the lesser female lights of the group; actually the only admirable young woman in it.
It is nice; from a time forgotten.
It is very smart about itself. In a bar, a graduate of the scene talks to a few of the boys, almost as the ghost of preppy future.
I liked it a lot even though I hardly identified with them. As another outsider, I watched the boy navigate.
He occasionally hits the bank but sails through it all rather well and finds himself and the nice girl.
It requires some commitment to get through all the young adult poor little rich kid angst. And the end is protracted.
I will give this winner of an Independent Spirit Award (best first film) a 3 out of Netflix5.
UPDATE: I spent so much time telling John about this movie at dinner that I have to change the rating.
It will be a 4 out of Netflix5!
It really does stick with me. It was better at getting into my head than I thought.
