Elizabeth Wood's White Girl is perhaps best described as a subversive love story; a fairy tale of depravity about the unlikely romance between Leah, a college girl from the midwest, and Blue, a low-end drug dealer whose primary corner is located across the street from Leah's Queens apartment in New Yew City. Lea is introduced as a carefree college student, someone who is experimenting with sex and drugs but overall comes from a relatively privileged background. Working at an upscale art boutique, White Girl early on reveals that Lea is quite innocent when it comes to adulthood and real consequences, seemingly never having to experience real adversity, naive about the colder aspects of the universe. Experimenting and living a carefree lifestyle, Leah falls hard for Blue, a character who comes from a much harsher environment but feels much more wise about the world. Sparks fly quickly but after a night of hard partying their budding romance takes a drastic turn, with Blue being arrested for a drug charge. With Leah now forced to fend for herself, White Girl chronicles the awakening of a character who is willing to do nearly anything to get Blue back in her arms. White Girl relies heavily on shock value, at times teetering on the edge of comedy due to its cartoonist descent into depravity. Nothing in White Girl is particularly subtle, with one of my biggest complaints being how didactic the film can be at times in delivering its vague commentary on racial inequality and privilege, almost as if they had to name the film "White Girl" to make it more obvious. I must admit that I did find the ending to be quite chilling, a sequence I would argue works in spite of the film's overall struggle when it comes to expressing its themes. This particular film also has a very harsh view of men, with Leah being a completely sexualized object, with every male character, from her boss to the lawyer she hires, desiring her like she is a piece of meat. The descent is compelling from a pure shock and awe factor, but many of these actions feel inorganic, simply inserted to provide obstacles but no depth to Lea's struggle. Elizabeth Wood's White Girl does consistently maintain a level of uncertainty throughout its running time, with the narrative mimicking the unhinged nature of its main protagonist. White Girls is better enjoyed as a twisted little romance, a film which delivers a rather stunning, cartoonish cautionary tale which unfortunately misses the mark when it comes to social commentary, for the most part.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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