Larry Clark's latest film, Marfa Girl, takes place in the small border town of Marfa, Texas, following the exploits of Adam, a directionless 16 year-old whose apathy for everything around him has left him cold and distant. Following the exploits of Adam, his teenage girlfriend, a high school teacher, and a border patrol agent, Larry Clark's film is a flawed albeit fascinating portrait of a working class border town. Anyone familiar with Larry Clark's work should know what they are getting into with Marfa Girl, as Clark's infatuation with using teenage sexuality is very much intact. Clark never holds much back in depicting the budding sexuality of his young characters, as if he views sex as one of the few universal truths of humanity. While the film does touch on the relationship between love & sex and the confusion which exists between the two, Marfa Girl's penchant for explicit content ends up distracting from the films ability to say so much more about this impoverished, rural community, disabling the film from touching on its more interesting elements. All of Larry Clark's films are oddly compelling at times, with Marfa Girl's strengths lying in its ability to examine the humanistic qualities of its ensemble cast, capturing some profound insights into human nature and relationships. Marfa Girl is a film that truly believes that humanity is kind-hearted and good-natured, arguing how experiences are often what shape us into how society perceives us. There is no better example of this than the misogynstic, deeply-disturbed border patrol character, a man who we eventually learn has been shaped into a monster due to his dark childhood. While the scene where he reveals his childhood issues feels hamfisted and forced, the scene is important in humanizing this character, letting the viewer understand that he was shaped into this monster by a father who showed little empathy. Another scene which I thought was very compelling is a sequence between a border patrol officer and a young artist, who exchange in a verbal argument about the value of their respective professions. Through this small sequence Clark speaks to how society is quickly to criticize and judge without ever attempting to fully understand where someone is coming from, with the young artist lacking the overall worldview to understand the complications of life. While the film has moments of great truth and poignancy about life, humanity, and growing up, Marfa Girl unfortunately becomes too distracted with Clark's need to inject an unnecessary amount of sexuality into the film to make it truly special. Larry Clark's Marfa Girl is a scattered film full of interesting ideas and themes, being too focused and uneven to ever fully develop itself as a study of humanity and the judgmental tendencies of society.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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