Sundance: Day Six

Dave Calhoun examines the glut of films about teenage sex and also takes in the most talked about Australian movie in years.

Jan 28 2005

Day Six: Teenage confusion by the lorry-load; castration; and bad news for the Aussie tourist board.

How many times in one week can one person watch a different cinematic take on the predicament of the troubled youngster?

This year, Sundance is the film festival equivalent of a moody kid's darkened bedroom: a home to adolescent angst and tentative self-discovery via a crop of new American indies.

Not all films playing here tread such ground, of course. But Noam Baumbach's 'The Squid and the Whale', Steve Buscemi's 'Lonesome Jim', David Slade's 'Hard Candy', Mike Mills' 'Thumbsucker' and Miranda July's 'Me and You and Everyone We Know' all explore youthful sexuality and confusion.

As such, Time Out is now an expert on amateur fumblings under the duvet; one more under-age blow job and I'll be forced to hand myself over to the authorities.

'The Squid and the Whale' screened today. Set in the mid-1980s, it tells of Walt, a 16-year-old New Yorker who is struggling to deal with the divorce of his liberal academic parents, played by Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney. While Walt learns the basics of (very rapid) sex with his new girlfriend, his young brother simultaneously discovers himself by smearing sperm on the lockers of girls at school.

It's a well-handled story and, unsurprisingly, is largely autobiographical on the part of writer-director Noam Baumbach.

Also screening today, the Australian film 'Wolf Creek' offers a very different experience. Unashamedly a genre piece, this horror thriller, based on a true story, tells of three backpackers who are terrorised by a mad man in the outback.

With shades of 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre', it's hardly subtle but is sure to do well at the box office. It also promises to set the work of the Australian tourist board back by at least 50 years.

Another film that is sure to transfer well from festival to box office is 'Hard Candy', which UK distributor Redbus has already snapped up for $1 million.

'Hard Candy' is the most interesting take on teen sexuality at the festival so far. Geoff (Patrick Wilson), a 32-year-old fashion photographer, meets 14-year-old Hayley (Ellen Page) on an internet chat site and arranges to meet her in person.

British director David Slade delights in the ambiguity of their encounter, before taking his film somewhere else entirely - a very dark place that involves castration, suicide and torture. It's a smart, confident debut.