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I ♥ This Movie

November 21st, 2009 by MiamiMovieCritic in Movie Reviews

With the release of NEW MOON, I thought it might be fun to take a look at some of the best teen romance movies ever made. Not that I’m a fan of TWILIGHT – if you want to see the year’s best teen romance starring Kristen Stewart, see ADVENTURELAND.

IMO, the best of the decade are John Stockwell’s CRAZY/BEAUTIFUL, Peter Sollett’s RAISING VICTOR VARGAS and Aaron Katz’s heartfelt mumblecore DANCE PARTY, USA. (I also want to give a shout-out to Tomas Alfredson’s extraordinary vampire pic LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, even though the outcasts in this movie are a little too young – or, in the case of Eli the vampire, a little too young-looking – to qualify.) I had high hopes for Sollett’s 2008 adaptation of NICK & NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST, but man, what a faux-indie bummer that turned out to be. There was more soul in its soundtrack than in its storytelling. Read the book instead; in fact, if you like this genre of fiction, you should read everything by NICK & NORAH co-writer David Levithan, especially his highly re-readable book of poetry, THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY.

If you’re in the mood for a classic Hollywood romance, you could do worse than watching three rapturous movies starring Natalie Wood: WEST SIDE STORY, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS. For audiences of the 1950s and early 1960s, these movies all but defined what it meant to be a teenager. They spoke to thoughts and feelings that are unique to being a teen and are created in the heads and hearts of young people, not in a focus group on Madison Avenue.

So what’s the greatest teen romance of all time? Cameron Crowe’s SAY ANYTHING – with Lloyd Dobler winning the heart of the girl he loves by lifting a boom box over his head – is a definite possibility. THE MAN IN THE MOON is also in the running; the scene where Reese Witherspoon gets her first kiss (from Jeremy London, aka “Pink” in DAZED AND CONFUSED) is easily one of the sweetest moments in movie history. There are other movies that have great characters and situations – like Knox Overstreet reading a poem to Chris Noel in DEAD POETS SOCIETY, or William Miller confessing his love to Penny Lane in ALMOST FAMOUS – but they don’t really belong in the same genre as SAY ANYTHING and MAN IN THE MOON.

Those movies are all terrific. But, if I go with my head and my heart, I’d have to say the best teen romance ever made is John Duigan’s FLIRTING.

Never heard of it? Neither had I until a few months ago. It’s an Australian movie that came out in 1991 – a sequel to Duigan’s THE YEAR MY VOICE BROKE, which is impossible to find on DVD. But you don’t need to see it first, because FLIRTING is the rare sequel that stands on its own. It’s about Danny Embling (Noah Taylor), a charmingly offbeat teen who belongs in the same heroic league as Holden Caulfield and Max Fischer. Danny falls for the new girl in school, Thandiwe Adjewa (a young and very beautiful Thandie Newton). He’s white and she’s black. And, as the movie makes exquisitely clear, they’re perfect for each other.

The movie features the most realistic second-base scene I’ve ever seen, a great school dance scene (scored to “With a Girl Like You” by The Troggs), and a wonderfully affecting cast including Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts. But I think what really puts it over the moon is Duigan’s screenplay – especially Danny’s poetic voiceover. I love the scene where Danny and Thandiwe are sitting together with their friends. He’s admiring her legs, and when he sees the little bruises around her ankles that her socks have made, he says: “That’s how I knew she was real.” No other movie is better at expressing what it feels like to be a teenager in love. As high school romances go, FLIRTING is at the top of the class.

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