I saw this a very long time ago on a V.H.S. rental. Didn't remember too much of it, apart from the catchy theme. This year, I think, I recorded it from a very early morning broadcast on ABC TV. Got around to watching it last weekend. Since I was quite young when I first saw it, I have to say that I got more out of it as an adult.
The movie is based on the novel of the same name by Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette. BTB, the latter is married to my favourite lawyer/host of TV (best on the ABC but also on a commercial network) hypotheticals Geoffrey Robertson. Even though I haven't read the book, I'm under the impression that it is autobiographical in nature. It concerns the life of two teenage girls, Debra and Sue, and their attempt to become part of the 'cool' gang of surfie chicks who hang around their boyfriends who like nothing better than to surf.
What really struck me watching this film again was how sociological some of the narrative is. E.g. "If you weren't a surfer chick, you were a nobody, a nerd. If you wanted to get into the gang, you had to crawl after and suck up to all the gang girls". There's an interesting analysis of beaches around where the film is set: South Cronulla ("dickhead land", where "L-plate" surfers, Italian families and the "uncool kids from Bankstown" go; North Cronulla, and Greenhill, where the top surfie gang hung out...everybody is trying to get there. The narrator (not sure, but I think it's Debra) identifies the pair of them as "dickheads"! The other quote which I made a note of was: "If you were pimply, a migrant or just plain ugly you couldn't get a boyfriend. If you couldn't get a boyfriend, there were two options: you could be a prude or a moll. Being a prude was too boring. If you were a moll at least people knew who you were". I suspect that these sociological observations were drawn from the book.
The film has themes of teenage sex and drug use. So, I'm not sure that I'd recommend this film for pre-teens and especially ones younger than that. It's not that the film is explicit, but it's pretty obvious what's going on.
Issues of class also surface in this movie. Debra is from a higher social strata than the boys she longs to hang out with. How Debra and Sue categorise the world and place people and things into those categories is interesting. E.g. surfer boys and the girls that hang around them are deemed to be "cool". Yet none of them are academically adept. I did find it amusing how Debra's family reacts when she leaves with surfer boy Bruce in his panel van. That provides an alternative perspective to how the two girls organise the world around them.
There are two narrative elements which I wish to mention: 01) There's a scene where a "moll" gets into the surfer boys' panel van. It looks like things will take a dark turn here, but then it veers into comedic territory. Having briefly glanced at the Wikipedia entry for the book or movie, this seems to be, perhaps, one of the issues one of the book's authors (at least) complained about...the dilution of serious themes in the novel. For that reason, I think it would be interesting to read the book. However, even though the movie took a light tone for part of that scene, it does end with pathos when the boys return to the city in their panel van. 02) Personally, I didn't make too much of the following, but it seems as if the author(s) did...there is a rather pat resolution to a narrative thread concerning the consequences of one of the two girl's relationship with a boy in the film. Based on my glancing of the Wikipedia article, that seems another big (?) departure from the novel. Speaking of which, I did find the all in brawl on the beach scene to be pure slapstick...and the Wikipedia article did state that this scene was not in the novel.
Having glanced at Wikipedia's entry for the book and/or movie, it's mentioned that the movie tones down the teenage lingo used in the book. Some expressions which came up which left me clueless were: "vos tossa" (there's a later scene where "vaseline" is mentioned...maybe it's a phrase related to that?) and "Don't Bogart it"...the subtitles didn't have a capital "B" in that phrase...I'm assuming it's based on the old Hollywood star.
The end of the movie is interesting...it bookends with the start, in a way. Perhaps this is what they unconsciously desired all along, instead of the boys' gang?
I wouldn't regard this as a great film but I would think that it would be more meaningful to the target audience...teenagers. It's also interesting how this Australian movie has some sociological equivalences to American teen movies, with their own social taxonomy, like "nerd", "cheerleader", "jock" and "freak", etc.
Random observations:
* Music is by the great Tim Finn...although none of the songs are sung by him! The female singer or singers aren't credited, but Wikipedia does give that information. It seems to me that some interesting songs are uncredited, including a punk sounding Australian song (the pool scene. There is also a musical passage which sounds like a rejigged "Song for Guy", by Elton John.
* The opening credits are horrible...a garish, meretricious blue cursive, I think.
* Oddly, I kept thinking that the movie didn't actually name the two central female characters...but I was disabused of this belief by glancing at the start of the movie again and some other places.
P.S. as of the last couple of years, there has been a TV series based on this book or movie.
The movie is based on the novel of the same name by Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette. BTB, the latter is married to my favourite lawyer/host of TV (best on the ABC but also on a commercial network) hypotheticals Geoffrey Robertson. Even though I haven't read the book, I'm under the impression that it is autobiographical in nature. It concerns the life of two teenage girls, Debra and Sue, and their attempt to become part of the 'cool' gang of surfie chicks who hang around their boyfriends who like nothing better than to surf.
What really struck me watching this film again was how sociological some of the narrative is. E.g. "If you weren't a surfer chick, you were a nobody, a nerd. If you wanted to get into the gang, you had to crawl after and suck up to all the gang girls". There's an interesting analysis of beaches around where the film is set: South Cronulla ("dickhead land", where "L-plate" surfers, Italian families and the "uncool kids from Bankstown" go; North Cronulla, and Greenhill, where the top surfie gang hung out...everybody is trying to get there. The narrator (not sure, but I think it's Debra) identifies the pair of them as "dickheads"! The other quote which I made a note of was: "If you were pimply, a migrant or just plain ugly you couldn't get a boyfriend. If you couldn't get a boyfriend, there were two options: you could be a prude or a moll. Being a prude was too boring. If you were a moll at least people knew who you were". I suspect that these sociological observations were drawn from the book.
The film has themes of teenage sex and drug use. So, I'm not sure that I'd recommend this film for pre-teens and especially ones younger than that. It's not that the film is explicit, but it's pretty obvious what's going on.
Issues of class also surface in this movie. Debra is from a higher social strata than the boys she longs to hang out with. How Debra and Sue categorise the world and place people and things into those categories is interesting. E.g. surfer boys and the girls that hang around them are deemed to be "cool". Yet none of them are academically adept. I did find it amusing how Debra's family reacts when she leaves with surfer boy Bruce in his panel van. That provides an alternative perspective to how the two girls organise the world around them.
There are two narrative elements which I wish to mention: 01) There's a scene where a "moll" gets into the surfer boys' panel van. It looks like things will take a dark turn here, but then it veers into comedic territory. Having briefly glanced at the Wikipedia entry for the book or movie, this seems to be, perhaps, one of the issues one of the book's authors (at least) complained about...the dilution of serious themes in the novel. For that reason, I think it would be interesting to read the book. However, even though the movie took a light tone for part of that scene, it does end with pathos when the boys return to the city in their panel van. 02) Personally, I didn't make too much of the following, but it seems as if the author(s) did...there is a rather pat resolution to a narrative thread concerning the consequences of one of the two girl's relationship with a boy in the film. Based on my glancing of the Wikipedia article, that seems another big (?) departure from the novel. Speaking of which, I did find the all in brawl on the beach scene to be pure slapstick...and the Wikipedia article did state that this scene was not in the novel.
Having glanced at Wikipedia's entry for the book and/or movie, it's mentioned that the movie tones down the teenage lingo used in the book. Some expressions which came up which left me clueless were: "vos tossa" (there's a later scene where "vaseline" is mentioned...maybe it's a phrase related to that?) and "Don't Bogart it"...the subtitles didn't have a capital "B" in that phrase...I'm assuming it's based on the old Hollywood star.
The end of the movie is interesting...it bookends with the start, in a way. Perhaps this is what they unconsciously desired all along, instead of the boys' gang?
I wouldn't regard this as a great film but I would think that it would be more meaningful to the target audience...teenagers. It's also interesting how this Australian movie has some sociological equivalences to American teen movies, with their own social taxonomy, like "nerd", "cheerleader", "jock" and "freak", etc.
Random observations:
* Music is by the great Tim Finn...although none of the songs are sung by him! The female singer or singers aren't credited, but Wikipedia does give that information. It seems to me that some interesting songs are uncredited, including a punk sounding Australian song (the pool scene. There is also a musical passage which sounds like a rejigged "Song for Guy", by Elton John.
* The opening credits are horrible...a garish, meretricious blue cursive, I think.
* Oddly, I kept thinking that the movie didn't actually name the two central female characters...but I was disabused of this belief by glancing at the start of the movie again and some other places.
P.S. as of the last couple of years, there has been a TV series based on this book or movie.