Could have done better?

Adolescence (2025)
Miniseries (4 episodes)

https://kinocheck.com/show/s23/adolescence

This miniseries has everyone buzzing. It is likely regarded as the most surreal creation to grace screens since 16-year-old Linda Blair portrayed Regan MacNeil in the 1973 film, The Exorcist. This is Netflix's latest blockbuster offering. The subject matter is undeniably dark, involving a 13-year-old student murdering a fellow female student as a result of cyberbullying. 

The miniseries features the filming of each episode in a single shot. While it may feel sluggish at times, this approach enhances the story's immersion as the case unfolds.

The essence of the story begins with a police raid to apprehend a teenager suspected of murdering another teenager. From that moment, it evolves into a police procedural drama as the legal system processes the accused. It showcases the overwhelming emotions experienced by everyone involved: the police officers, the supportive staff, the lawyer, the social worker, and the psychologists. For most of them, it is their first encounter with a young person embroiled in such a heinous crime. This situation is a devastating blow to the accused's parents and sister, who struggle to comprehend the idea that their beloved son could commit such an act.

As the series progresses, we learn more about the family dynamics and the atmosphere within the school. Much has changed since our own school days. Children now possess a private portal to the outside world, a realm filled with malevolence and deceit that threatens to ruin their futures. No matter how much strict discipline and guidance are instilled in them, they lead lives of their own. Cyberspace offers a secluded environment where anything goes. The thin line separating decency from insanity becomes increasingly blurred. What was once considered taboo has now gone mainstream. Children are vulnerable; they possess the illusion of agency and believe they can make their own choices. They misuse privacy for all the wrong reasons, constructing an impenetrable barrier around themselves. The adults' words of wisdom can sound harsh, digging them deeper into the abyss. With alien neologisms like incel (involuntary celibacy) culture, the manosphere featuring harmful gender ideologies, and themes such as the '80-20 rule', schoolchildren are lost in their quagmire of finding a place in their universe.

When the proverbial excrement hits the fan, everyone will be in for a shock. They will ask, "How did our innocent little child transform into such a monster?" Parents will start to question where they went wrong. Could they have done better? These parents faced greater hardships from their own upbringing and external pressures, yet they turned out fine. Why can't their offspring, with all the modern conveniences at their disposal, manage to be resilient and not easily triggered? No one seems to understand.

Love overcomes?

May December (2023)
Director: Todd Haynes

A May-December marriage is between two people with a wide age gap. May refers to the proverbial spring (of life), while December refers to late autumn or winter.

The story is based on the 1997 infamous case of Mary Kay Letourneau, an elementary school teacher in Washington, aged 34, who had sexual relations with her 12-year-old student, Villi Fualaau. She was charged with rape. She delivered a love child during the trials. She was later imprisoned for breaking a plea agreement. After her release, the teacher and student married in 2005 and went on to have a set of twins. Mary already had four children when she was teaching Villi. She was having troubles in her marriage and was diagnosed as having bipolar disease. Both Villi and Mary justified their actions as acts of love.

This film revisits the Mary Kay-Fualaau family in 2015. The timeline is out here. The couple has three kids, including a pair of twins. An actress, Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), who is to play Mary's part (Gracie in the film, Julianne Moore), drops in the household to get a feel of things to play the role. At the end of the day, the viewers get more than what they bargained for. It tries to dive into the family dynamics as their second born (the twins) graduates from high school. Elizabeth tries to do more than is needed. She tries to interview Gracie's immediate family and ex-husband to get a composite picture of what made Gracie and Joe (Villi's part) get together. She also tries to evaluate the family dynamics.

What we gather is a domineering, control-freak kind of a wife who wants to have the final say in everything. She creates an aura of calmness and a business-as-usual atmosphere at home. In reality, at best, she is passive-aggressive in getting things done. She is disliked by many and is a registered sex offender. She continues receiving hate mail. People boycott her. Joe, on the other hand, appears unsure about everything. He is a passive member of the family. It seems like he has had arrested development, missing all the late teenager's years of exposure. If we remember, he was burdened with father's duty at 13. As the movie progresses, we can see that Joe has second thoughts about the arrangement but lingers on for the children's sake, not wanting to be the cause of their psychological well-being. In real life, Villi and Mary Kay divorced in 2019.

The actress Elizabeth, on the other hand, is no saint either. She uses her unique position and feminine charm to extract all she needs from people around here, including bedding Joe, for her career advancement.

An interview with a Tamil actor still at the height of his career and has a late teenage son comes to mind. When asked about the pros of marrying early, he replied that one's life is more malleable when young. Marrying young gets one to mould himself to fit the demands of the new family. Delaying one's marriage to a later makes one develop routines and idiosyncrasies that are challenging to shake off, quickly creating friction. I disagree with that statement. Getting committed at a tender age to the whims and fancies of the raging hormones, ill-prepared for the challenges of family life can be disastrous, too. The appreciation of the wedding institution and the willingness to uphold it at all expense would ensure success. 

Bending the minds towards one particular narrative would ensure the continuity of the status quo. Some call this 'Peace on Earth'; others call it the domination of the elitists. When the mind becomes inquisitive and screams to break free, they call it a revolution, which can be 'Hell on Earth'!

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Syukur, our schools have no random shootings!

Tiger Stripes (2023)
Written and Directed by Amanda Nell Eu

This movie reminds me of P Ramlee's not-so-famous film, 'Sitora Harimau Jadian'. Sitora was 1964 Malaya's answer to the European folklore of werewolves. Instead of werewolves, he created a story about a were-tiger. Made in black and white with a limited budget for the make-up department, it failed both in awe and in its gore aspects.

'Tiger Stripes', on the other hand, is not much of a scary movie. It is more of a social commentary. It highlights bullying in schools, the confusing hormones-laden pubertal era, the uninspiring methods of teaching, and maybe many more.

International viewers will wonder why girls in that all-girls school suddenly go haywire, shrieking and falling down simultaneously with jerky hand and body movements like a person possessed. Yes, the film also showcases the problem of mass hysteria, a peculiar phenomenon that is seen in many all-female Malaysian schools and hostels.

Another glaring thing shown here is the dismal standard of English taught in Malaysian schools. Imagine 13-year-olds still struggling with grammar and tenses. That is not fiction, but very much a common site in many schools in the interior parts of the country and also in the poorer section of towns. My sister, who used to mark public examination papers, would be testimony to this. She could not believe what was written (or not written) on exam papers.

My beloved secondary school headmaster used to advocate that 'academic excellence is no substitute to poverty of character'. It may be true when academic achievements are par excellence. One can explore other avenues to mould a holistic student who can withstand the challenges of adult life. Here, what I see is another wrapped hollow package. The country values the presentation, not its content, quantity not quality, and racial aspirations, not national development.

Mass hysteria is a poorly understood collective psychogenic illness. It is not even listed in the DSM, the manual of all psychiatric and psychological ailments. South East Asia is labelled as the world capital for this illness. Many medical experts failed to identify a single cause for this condition. Stress has been suggested as the prominent cause. Most of the time, faith healers are called in, as is seen in this movie, with comical outcomes. In 2015, a local university in the state of Pahang came out with an anti-hysteria kit that was sold at a whopping RM 8,750. This kit, created after years of research, could allegedly ward off evil spirits. For that sum, the kit came with just chopsticks, salt, lime, vinegar, pepper spray and formic acid.

(P.S. Syukur (thank God), our schools have no random shootings!)

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A bold move?

A Summer Place (1959)
Director: Dalmer Daves

This must be a bold movie when it was made in the late 50s, talking about infidelity, teenage promiscuity, behaviour and sex. With all the restrictions on American movies' code of conduct, they pulled this out.

The movie starts with a summer vacation mansion that has seen better days. It is run by a husband-and-wife team (Bart and Sylvia). The husband is an obvious dipsomaniac, and the wife is apparently uncontended with life. They have a soon-to-go-to-high school son (Johnny, acted by teenage heartthrob Troy Donahue). Business is barely sustainable as the husband, who inherited it from his father, is more interested in keeping himself inebriated. 

In comes a millionaire with his wife (Ken and Helen) and teenage daughter (Molly, acted by Sandra Dee, typically typecasted as an ingénue, simple girl) to stay for the next three months. The juicy story behind it is that the businessman used to work as a lowly lifeguard there and had sought greener pastures when Sylvia rejected his love advances. 

Ken and Helen also have an unhappy marriage, with Helen being the uppity urbane female with class consciousness and a stickler for rules). Helen is the strict parent who controls Molly's every attire and behaviour, while Ken is the chill parent.

Ken rekindles his affair with Sylvia. Their nightly secret rendezvous came to Helen's knowledge. Johnny and Molly, with their raging teenage hormones, see Cupid shooting arrows. 

The story becomes twisted as Ken and Sylvia divorce their spouses, and the step-siblings discover their sexuality.

Even though the acting (except for Helen, played by Constance Ford), the dialogue and its delivery leave much to be desired, the music score by Max Steiner turned out to be evergreen.

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Innocence lost?

Close (Flemish, 2022)
Director: Lukas Dhont

Gone are the times when people used to be safe amongst their own kind. Girls were comfortable mingling with girls, and boys can act normal amongst their guy friends. In fact, boys and girls, after a certain age, will feel curious about the opposite sex but at the time feel uncomfortable breaking the ice. 

If growing up is not difficult enough, maturing from a teenager to morph into a young adult and pave a future for himself, now he has to deal with his sexuality. He is now cornered to be assigned a gender at increasingly diabolical ages. Children used to have a sweet phase of their life called childhood where they could play, be carefree and explore things as and when they find fit. Things happened naturally. Now, there is a rush to compartmentalise. In certain localities, part of the educators' scope of duties includes identifying students trapped in a wrongly assigned gendered body. Psychological assessments would legitimatise pubertal blockers, hormonal therapy and as far as gender reassignment surgeries. And the parents may not need to consent to all these interventions on their pre-teen kids.

The sad thing is that sometimes science gets it wrong. So do the nimble impressionable minds. Detransitioning or seeking for reversal of gender transitioning is a real thing.

This Belgian candidature for the Oscar tells an emotional story of two 13-year-old boys, Léo and Rémi, who happened to be very close friends. They grew up together and their families were close. As they move into middle school, the nature of their closeness is frowned upon by their classmates. Léo, the athletic one, denies that they are a couple. Rémi, the artistic one, actually secretly harbours passionate feelings. As Léo increasingly distances himself from Rémi, the next thing that the school hears is that Rémi commits suicide. The rest of the story is about how Léo deals with the guilt of rejecting Rémi's advances and the loss of his best friend.

A slow-moving drama with intense close-ups filled with emotion. Recommended for the romantics.

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Nothing is as it seems.

A Chiara (Italian; 2022)
Director: Jonas Carpignano

That is what coming-of-age means. Growing up, we are imbibed with teachings of what is right and wrong. Our perception of the world is made, and we want to lead a life full of good virtues and abstain from negativities. Our first teachers about life, the future and the outside get a special honorarium in my mind. We placed them on a pedestal and became a reference point in our future decision-making.

Then we are slowly exposed to the outside world. We make friends. We become aware that life is not so straightforward after all. People do wrong things and are still cool about it. Our eyes are open to the reality of life. Suddenly our parents are not so saintly anymore. They have their gross shortcomings. The ideal world that we wanted to build becomes an unfulfilled dream.   We become another spoke in the world of misfortune. Did the parents do what they did for the family's well-being, for a better life, fully aware that it was wrong? Is it the responsibility of the rest to be complicit in the cover-up? Or should be just squeal, as it is the right thing to do.

This long-burn drama uses many non-professional actors to tell that exact story. The story of Chiara starts with a boisterous 18th birthday party of her sister's. Many family members and friends attend. Intimacy is apparent amongst the many close-knit relatives. The father is shown as a sensitive, loving father. 

The next morning Chiara's father goes missing after a car blast. Chiara is 15. Her mother, her elder sister as well as other members seem not too concerned about his disappearance. On her phone, Chiara learns that her father is a fugitive and is on the run for Mafia-related activities. In the meantime, Chiara beats up a fellow student at school. In view of her exposure to the Mafia, the social service decides to send her off to a foster family. Chiara has to grow up fast to make a decision about which way she wants her future to be - a brand one away from all the current trappings or one intertwined with the Mafia.

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Generational clash?

Hi Mom, Dad! What's Up? 

Greeja De Silva

The moment Elvis Presley went on stage gyrating his pelvis, belting his then-new number 'Hound Dog', the elders went white. To them, his suggestive moves were the mark of the beginning of the end, Armageddon. Nearly seventy years on, we are, however, still very much rocking.

Ironically, almost all toddlers make Superman out of their fathers. This admiration slowly dwindles as puberty hits when opinions about the perspective of life clash. They grow apart with the passing years only for the toddler, now a middle-aged father of an adult child himself, to realise the 'Superman-Ubermench' capabilities of his old man. 

All these are nothing new but generational gaps. The generation next looks at their predecessors as obsolete and the elders at their offspring as decadent and self-destructive. Even Socrates must have thought the same of the youngsters of his times that he thought his death by hemlock would awaken them. 

Of course, we can now point all these clashes to the relatively incomplete development of the frontal lobes on one side and the genuine desire to impart life lessons to the kids on the other. The kids are overwhelmed with unabated exposure to the outside world and the unfettered ability to verbalise their thoughts.

Technology is a double-edged sword. Cursed for causing divisiveness between generations, it has also found its uses to unite them. Like the Elvis moment, the elders viewed unrestricted access to information as dangerous. Detractors to this assert that the 'Superman' wisdom will prevail. It is envisaged that the cyber-savvy generation will realise that great powers come with big responsibilities. Hopefully, a steady state will prevail.  

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And they call it puppy love!

Melody (1971)
Director: Waris Hussein

I watched this movie just because the Bee Gees made its original soundtrack, and two of their hit singles graced it. The songs 'To Love Somebody' and 'First of May' seem appropriate to showcase puppy love, the main subject. It tells the story of a co-ed British school in which a young teenage boy falls in love with his schoolmate and wants to get married, not in the near future, but ASAP.

The story is told from the point of view of children. The child actors are the main stars, whilst the adults play mere supporting roles. The adults (i.e., parents and teachers) are painted as flawed, ugly, unimpressive, brash, boring, and disassociated from reality. The children are painted as full of life, mischievous, and imaginative in how they want to live their lives.

This is the exact reason why the lovebirds want to get married there and then, not when they are old and boring like the adults around them. Besides creating a whirlwind among the parents and teachers, the boy's best friend is unwilling to share his friendship with this girl. In. the vein of light comedy that the movie is, all the school kids get together in private to organise a mock wedding.

Well, the conservatives amongst us in this country would have acted exactly the same way as the school kids decided to do. Rather than doing all the sinful things their hormones make them do, these full-thinking adults have no qualms about child marriages. There is no question of exercising self-restraint or willpower. They would just let their animalistic instincts dictate their lives! All the modern sociological knowledge of the dangers of child marriages goes down the sewer. It happened centuries ago, and all was well, they justify.

To Love Somebody

The song First of May comes on annually, not for Labour Day, but to commemorate Bee Gees' trio. Three of four Brothers Gibb have since passed, but the remaining Gibb, Barry, has lost his mojo without his twin younger brothers. They had been belting hits after hits from the mid-60s to early 2000s.

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The problems of growing up!

Reprise (2006)

Director: Joachim Trier

That is the problem dealing with mental illness, the unpredictability. This is worse when the affected party is young. If dealing with changing hormones and altered body image is hard enough, imagine how much more it would be to pave a life and steer himself away from all negativities of youth!

This must be more challenging when society defines a person as an adult at 18 and pressures the person to chase his future, paving the path for self-development, finding his own identity and fulfilling the desires of youth. It is no easy feat.

This 2006 film is part of the Oslo trilogy by director Joachim Trier. It primarily deals with two childhood friends who develop a passion for writing. They take a shot at writing and both handle their paths differently. With them are their three other friends who play an important role in their life.

An interesting movie that would strike a chord with those who had grown up with a younger person with pressures of the mind.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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