Even to those
for whom it went well, adolescence sucks. That may be why
storytellers keep going back to "coming of age" stories.
We may not understand exactly why those years sucked for
us, but we enjoy the schadenfreude of watching them
happen to someone else.
Hint: If you
used the word schadenfreude in high school, that
may a clue as to why my - your - adolescence blew.
Budding filmmakers
try to write what they know. The short Confessions of
a Late Bloomer has a pretty clever premise, but I hope
the screenwriter Stuart C. Paul never actually went through
it himself. Combined with director Jen McGowan, the creators
have a keen insight into the rough world of being an underdeveloped
fifteen-year-old boy. Donny (Tylor Chase) may not be able
to laugh freely about it, but McGowan certainly lets us.
As the title
suggests, Donny has not quite reached his physical majority.
With hormones flying through the halls of his high school,
this makes his days hell. Bullied, called many names and
pining for Sheila (Christina Stacey), not even retreating
to his room helps. Heck, he's shamed knowing that even the
fattest kid in gym class is more of a man.
When he snaps
(a towel), he invokes the code duello to his nemesis
Cal (D'angelo Jones), and finds himself with less than a
week to kick-start puberty.
At this point,
the film becomes brutally embarrassingly honest about guys
and their longing for secondary sexual characteristics.
What it never quite confronts, though, it that the film
also presents a character who is outcast for other reasons.
In fact, it's so focused on its premise that it leaves Donny
almost as underdeveloped as his body.
It's a short,
so they sacrificed depth for easy sitcom answers. On that
level, it works, without sinking to that "very special episode"
feeling.
All the actors
work in pretty broad strokes but still come off as believable.
Only the object of desire, Sheila, reads flat, but she's
written that way, too. Though Donny reaches the expected
epiphany about himself, he never really sees that he has
objectified her just as much as her jerk boyfriend Cal had.
Director McGowan
clearly has a light touch with her actors, and avoids the
temptations of tyro filmmakers. Though clever with the camera,
she always keeps the story at the fore. No shot gets so
distracting that it diverts our attention.
Confessions
of a Late Bloomer works as a trifle, but an honest one
that portends more blooming from its creators.
More
information can be found on this short at their
site.
