Matt Shea
RubySoho
Morgan Bell
Cibbuano
David O'Connell
Mountain Fog
LOL @ the Sydney French Film Festival
February 9th 2010 20:37
We have plenty of movies about the trials of being a teenager, and you would think that the film-going population would be weary of it by now. Do we need another Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?
I suppose the answer is an emphatical, unequivocal 'yes' - these movies have all found success and popularity not only for the subject matter, but for the sense that they accurately portrayed that period in time. That is, the 80s for Fast Times and the 90s for Dazed and Confused.
Well, where are we for the 00s? The lost decade? The ten years of no economic growth, but a time where technology pushed us to the limit of how much information we could possibly have?
I would argue, truthfully, that Lisa Azuelo's LOL (Laughing out loud) is a defining movie of this decade, a rousing, volatile ball of parties, angry lust, spurned love and ferocious music.
Christa Theret plays Lola, a striking teenaged girl who is on the cusp of adulthood, who longs to rush into the adult world of independence, freedom and sexual exploits, but is tenaciously held back by her mother, played by Sophie Marceau.
Azuelo's film is fast moving and frenetically cut, a movie to please a younger generation. Where are my long takes, I gnashed in grumpy misanthropy, but was placated by an excellent story, slow-building, giving the audience insight into the world of mother and daughter.
Marceau holds the camera effortlessly when she's onscreen (glorious, sparkling Sophie Marceau!), and her role seems to culminate in her exasperation to her friends, where she admits that, while she sought sexual liberation and the freedom to make her own decisions,she couldn't bear the same for her daughter.
LOL makes great use of this hypocrisy, which runs rampant today - my parent's generation were Boomers, they who ingested, inhaled and became; my generation tried even harder to get on the good foot and raise a little hell. I sympathize with the yet-to-materialize plight of our kids, who, as teenagers, will roll their eyes at two generations of adults, scoffing at them as we snuff martinis.
I say: An excellent, moving film, one definitely worth seeing at the French Film Festival. These kids these days, they're alright.
See it for: In the latter half of the film, this class of French students goes on a trip to England; the director has a fabulous time poking a little fun of the English and their quirks.
*this image is from Cinemovies
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