Beyond Clueless
Director: Charlie Lyne
Cast: Fairuza Balk
Length: 89 mins
Country: UK
Jocks, cheerleaders, nerds – terms which were engraved into our consciousness often before we even entered high school (or as I like to call it, whilst sipping my cup of tea as a tear shaped like Winston Churchill roles down my cheek, secondary school). As we still ran around the school playground, carefree and sporting the odd scraped knee, the ominous monolith of puberty loomed over the horizon, and in its shadow, the gut-clenching embarrassment of sex-ed and PSHE talks about the dangers of adolescence. Yet, Hollywood offered some glamourous and exciting alternatives to the scary prospect of becoming a teenager.
The genre of the teen film finds its origins, arguably, in the 1930s, but grew in strength during the era of James Dean and Elvis Presley movies. However, it was in the 1980s and 90s that the genre really took on a solid form with iconic cinematic classics such as The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
The Breakfast Club
Whilst some cite the 80s John Hughes era of films as the golden age of teen movies, it was the subsequent decade of pubescent flicks that cemented the genre’s place in the Box Office realm. Indeed, it is this time period, beginning in the mid-90s and ending around the mid-noughties that Charlie Lyne’s new feature-length documentary, Beyond Clueless explores. Produced in a collage style of selected clips from teen movies made in this cinematic era, Beyond Clueless critiques the structure and tropes such a genre portrays, recycles and regurgitates time and time again. It is a film that reads rather like an academic thesis, offering alternative readings to the symbolism of films which are often canned by the upper echelons of film criticism.
As fidgeting font titles mark each of the film’s chapters, reminiscent in style of Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, and the soundtrack reminds us of lazy summer road trips we probably never had, whilst Balk’s apathetically-toned Californian drawl imparts Lyne’s academic argument, the documentary becomes a kind of meta-teen movie, immersing itself within the style of its own subject matter.
It is the film’s critical eye on such an easily dismissible genre which breathes something of an illuminating influence upon our outlook of such films. This is the strength upon which it rides, as we are able to observe films so familiar within popular culture through a different lens, and Lyne manages this with much aesthetic flare. The collage style of the film allows for focused analysis of the ‘source text’, unadulterated by subjective interviews, and allowing the audience moments of invigorating familiarity with films with which we grew up. This, combined with a fantastic original film score provided by indie pop duo Summer Camp, and a narration by Fairuza Balk (of cult classic, The Craft fame), Beyond Clueless is a truly evocative piece of critical cinema. As fidgeting font titles mark each of the film’s chapters, reminiscent in style of Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, and the soundtrack reminds us of lazy summer road trips we probably never had, whilst Balk’s apathetically-toned Californian drawl imparts Lyne’s academic argument, the documentary becomes a kind of meta-teen movie, immersing itself within the style of its own subject matter.
13 going on 30
Yet, despite such an evocative style, it is the film’s structure which holds a slight weakness. Like many an academic essay, Beyond Clueless’ chaptered form causes a sense of repetition about the film. Each chapter, exploring different aspects of plot and character tropes within teen films builds with a similar climax every one of them; something, which, after the third or fourth dramatic finale, can become somewhat tiring, as such drama brings with it the expectation of an ending and rolling credits. This being said, the building up of tension, achieved through the meshing together of clips and Summer Camp’s score, is a testament to the skills of the editor and the musicians; if Beyond Clueless is one thing besides being a documentary, it is a master-class in how visuals and music can be combined to produce a creative piece of exceptional emotional power.
However, as any good documentary should, Beyond Clueless evokes questions in us, and begs us to query further the content of the films we watch, particularly films which influenced us in our formative years. From the taboos of female sexuality in Ginger Snaps to the, surprisingly controversial, question of female independence in 13 Going on 30, we as an audience are asked to strip away the symbolism of many of our beloved films of adolescence to reveal the meanings beneath. Of course, the ideas that Lyne extracts are subjective, for like any text, different interpretation can be read into these films, and yet this need to question and critique is an important impact this film has upon its audience. Indeed, given some of the outcry on the film’s pessimistic outlook of 13 Going on 30, Beyond Clueless can be seen to function as a platform for debate, opening up the field of discussion for the films that directly influenced many of our generation; children born in the 90s.
Screening as part of the BFI’s Teenage Kicks season this August, Beyond Clueless reminds us of what teen movie fans love, but should also challenge about such influential films within our popular culture.
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