As demeaning as it may be to present French Kissers as a Gallic version of Gregg Mottola's Superbad, the comparison is necessary to show how Riad Sattouf's film differs from Mottola's in its hormone-crazed nostalgia. Like many films forged from the Judd Apatow mold, Superbad assumes that the travails of its dickhead protagonists are at an end once they've fulfilled their dreams of either asking out or scoring with the girl of their wet dreams. French Kissers recognizes the simplicity of that simple logic and veers in another direction. Hervé (Vincent Lacoste), a loveably greasy little loser that beats off to the French equivalent of the Sears catalogue, does eventually make it with Laura (Julie Scheibling). The trouble is he doesn't know what to do with her—or himself, for that matter—once he has. Continue Reading »
Film Comment Selects 2010: Over the Edge
by Aaron Cutler on February 21st, 2010 at 11:56 am in Festivals, Film
Over the Edge suffered from timing. Jonathan Kaplan's 1979 film finished production around the time teenage gangs were fighting in theaters over The Warriors; the studio, worried that this new teen movie would cause more violence, shelved it. But like White Dog, another studio film deemed too dangerous to be seen, its reputation grew. A 1981 HBO screening led to bookings at New York's Public Theater, which in turn led to showings in small art houses across the city. Edge recently came out on DVD and last night it opened Film Comment Selects. Film Comment editor Gavin Smith talked before the screening about how delighted he was "to give this film the premiere it never got but deserved," and the eager sold-out Walter Reade crowd clapped throughout. I couldn't help but think of John Frankenheimer talking about his 1966 flop Seconds: "It went from failure to classic without ever being a hit." Continue Reading »
Tags: Adventureland, Film Comment Selects, Jonathan Kaplan, Over the Edge, Paranoid Park, Rebel Without a Cause, Superbad, The Warriors, Velvet Goldmine, White Dog
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