God Help the Girl would probably resonate well with adolescents (i'm sorry, teens... I don't want to sound too much like an adult...) who share a common obsession and love with old film cameras, Sufjan Stevens, cats, Zooey Deschanel, the bob haircut, and esoteric poetry. It's a synonym for cutesy and artsy, light and playful. However, unfortunately, it is also a pejorative for something "extremely sweet or quaint, almost to the point of nausea". (Thank you, Urban Dictionary).
But with all jokes and cheap stereotypes aside, director and leader of famed indie pop band Belle & Sebastian Stuart Murdoch is on to something here. On first view, the idea of twee might come across to some as a style without any sort of substance. It is impossibly "twee" but it serves a purpose, mainly to do with the connections and internal dilemma between the main character, Eve, played by Emily Browning. Even before the first song kicks in, we already see that there is a conflict in Eve's life. It appears as though she has been admitted into a medical center / hospital, for which it is revealed that it is for her eating disorder. It is clear from the beginning that this change in Eve's life is not caused by her, but by other people that tell her to change. She leaves in the break of dawn to see this show and is arguably introduced to a world where there are no rules at all. It is only with her adventures with Cassie and James does she find her true voice, and this voice is free. This is a contrast to her life inside the hospital, where she had a musical voice, but it was literally and figuratively caged like a songbird.
Other than a stylistic choice of being downright lathered in Technicolor, this serves a purpose. I mean, think about it: would God Help the Girl make sense if it wasn't filmed in this style? Of course, the messages would be the same, but how would that relate with the teenagers of today? This "twee-volution" does serve its purpose, and only to convey that "life sucks" for teenagers, but it is coated in these cute and playful colors and these quirks that you almost forget that Eve is escaping her disorder and her hospital in order to find her true passion, songwriting. A little bit of fun goes a long way for Eve, and legitimizes the twee movement as something with a purpose and real demands.
Hey, James. I like the way you're trying to get what makes the twee movement tick. You could make your post even stronger (and less like a film review) by drawing connections beyond the film. Is there an American equivalent of this film?
ReplyDeleteThanks br0fam. I think there are several American versions to "God Help the Girl" that A) aren't necessarily films and B) aren't necessarily musicals. A good example could be the HBO TV show Girls where it is a dramedy on the transitions of being an adult, and you can kinda make that comparison with GHtG. Also, Moonrise Kingdom too is very twee, not just by style, but there's a strong element of a troubled youth coming-of-age story, same as the classic Stand By Me. There are many American variations of "twee" all throughout film, bro.
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