Speak (2004) review

I've going from hardcore social dump-postings to more traditional ones (for Pfort, anyway). What changed my mind? I remember during one of our meetings we began to categorize, like section off what each of us was doing with the fort. i can't remember for Giant or Lime, but TOFU was "current events", Panzer was "politics and ideology", and I was "social". When I heard that I knew immediately that wasn't quite... it.

I don't want to lock myself down to commentary on how bad my social life is. So I'm not going to talk about the past month and a half in a new social environment (it's definitely not all bad). Here's a movie review.

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Drama is a risk. You're always treading multiple lines, threatening to screw up something or the other. Some media resolve this with gimmicks. Some people throw in action. Scifi/Fantasy . Purposely addressing sensitive/popular subjects because they are sensitive and popular. These gimmicks aren't always abused, but when they are... (Elfen Lied) oh shit.

Speak centers around a girl who got raped. They could have gone overboard and milked the feminism cow for sympathy and rave reviews - they could have snapped their fingers and did it; and just like that every female watching the film will be in support. I'm an egalitarian, and I absolutely hate the feminism concept.

What turned me around? 4chan. Yep. 4chan isn't just /b/. I went to /tv/, and one guy recommended the film, saying, "I normally hate 'I was raped' movies, but Speak was good." So I took a chance; sometimes you find cool stuff that way.

Speak starts off at the beginning of high school (ironic, given what I just vowed not to post about). Our protagonist, Melinda, has been a social reject since 8th grade. Back then, at a massive party with her best friends and schoolmates, she called the cops, who busted all the underage drinkers, essentially destroying the gathering. She doesn't tell anyone why she dialed 911, is more or less exiled from her social circle, and becomes very, very quiet.

From her first unsteady, tentative days in high school Melinda is already outcast as a "squealer". The discipline master has her targeted for trouble, and even the enthusiastic visionary of an art teacher can't really get through. Nobody can - Melinda doesn't even bother to try, doesn't even bother to talk - she vocalizes mostly in monosyllables and the only interesting stuff we get from her is through her monologues with herself.

The thing about being friendless and outside of society is that it gets you to expand on other things. There's so much empty space that soon you find something to occupy yourself with, something to fill up that black hole. Melinda fills it with art, and she doesn't do it incredibly well, like a prodigy (another gimmick that could have been abused), her art is fascinating because she has something to say and this is the only way she can express it. One thing the movie explores is what we do when we have no one to talk to. We look to strangers for help, we make art, we invest our emotions heavily in a select few things, we even start excluding ourselves by our own will, long after the initial issue and problem is over. The movie looks at all this.

There's some symbolism in this movie, art being one of the central focuses. I didn't really get all of it, but I didn't need to, because the immersion of the film worked to great effect. The setting of an American high school is designed to be ageless, so it could be anywhere from the 90's to the present. The story is compatible with our culture as well.

The film sweeps from one end of the school year to another, and doesn't manage to feel rushed and remind you that this is a 2 hour flick, thanks to its excellent characterization. Not just for Melinda, but for her parents, her teachers, her schoolmates - though few actually stand out as special, all of them are incredibly real and alive. No depthless stock characters, no obligatory negative portrayal of "the popular kids". Speak's characters aren't tailored or forced by the writers to be special, to stand out with some ability, they're just very real and very, very good. (It was also funnier than Pink Panther 2 and a lot of teen movies I've seen.)

And that's what this movie is about. Reality, coming to terms with it, Melinda inching her way to a place where there is no wall and no pretense. This could have been about a girl who was raped and made to stay silent, but it's about much more, because Melinda chose to stay mute. Many films get emotional responses by focusing on a character's weakness that was forced onto them, so much that the weaknesses are more central to the film than the character itself. Not here.

Here it's more about strength, strength to open your mouth and also do something about your shit. Speak isn't perfect, but it is extremely well done and well worth ninety minutes of my time.

It's also an inspiration that you don't need big bucks to make good films. Heh.