THE GIRL NEXT DOOR
US, 2004, 110 minutes, Colour.
Emile Hirsch, Elisha Cuthbert, Timothy Olyphant, James Remar, Chris Marquette, Paul Dano, Timothy Bottoms.
Directed by Luke Greenfield.
They do make movies like they used to - except that a lot has changed in the behaviour of high school kids, a lot of it puzzling, some of it reprehensible, so that these teenage movies are not like they used to be.
The Girl Next Door is like that. On one level, it is suburban sweetness and light. The wholesome family with the son, Matthew, raising money to bring a student from Africa, preparing his speech for the scholarship awards, quietly doing his study. On the other level, the girl who moves in next door, housesitting, appears in pornographic movies (which our hero's friends discover because they are sex-obsessed and watch these movies) and gets Matthew into all kinds of trouble, even taking her to a motel and getting tangled with unscrupulous producers and gangsters and, finally, into a scheme of making more 'realistic' (read 'sexy' or 'sexually explicit') sex education films. It's the American story of Puritanism on the one hand and Permissiveness on the other. It's the off-hand, casual taking the permissive for granted that rings alarm bells.
Emile Hirsch (the cheating boy in The Emperor's Club) and Timothy Olyphant as a sleazy producer give good performances. Elisha Cuthbert is the girl next door. But...
1. The affluent city, suburbs, homes? The school? The visit to Las Vegas, the casinos, the adult movie exhibition? The home of the gangsters? An unreal world? The musical score and songs? The popularity of the team film? School film? The variation on the theme? The pornography industry?
2. The opening, the collage of the students and their ambitions? The contrast with Matthew? Shy, short? His friends Eli and Klitz? Their role in the school? Matthew as a leader, raising the money to sponsor the Cambodian student, his speech to the students? His self-consciousness, his studies, his ambitions to go to Georgetown, the realities? His family, mother and father - their support of him, seen throughout the film (and in his sex fantasies)?
3. Danielle moving in, his meeting her, watching her, out the window, her undressing? Her coming over to the house, his embarrassment, showing her around in the car? Their friendship? Klitz and his discovery that she was in a porn film? His reactions? The confrontation? Meeting Kelly at her house, his embarrassment? Kelly as the former boyfriend, the business manager? Kelly and his friendship, his taking the money to the bank and Kelly acting as his teacher - with disastrous consequences when he withdrew the money? Matthew at school, his distractions because of Danielle? Her urging him to be daring, going off to the beach instead of class? The reaction of his friends? Danielle and his taking her to the motel, her harsh reaction? His wanting to make up, the three going to the exhibition in Las Vegas, meeting the girls? Danielle and the reconciliation? Kelly and his anger, turning in Matthew? The proposal to raid the house of Posh? The confrontation, his being set up, caught? His being given Ecstasy, his performing badly at the school speech for the scholarship after so much rehearsing? His urging people to freedom, the applause? The aftermath and his not getting the scholarship? His idea, going to Hugo Posh, the setting up of the filming of the sex education video, his not going through with it himself, Eli and his performance, the set-up of the school bullies? The success of the sex education program, the interviews, his being the silent partner, getting the money, going to Georgetown? The portrait of a teenager - reality and fantasy?
4. Danielle, her background, moving in to mind the house, seeing Matthew watch her, taking him out in the car, making him strip on the road, chasing the car? Their friendship, her urging him to be daring, going off to the beach? The background of the films, the glimpses? Kelly, the relationship, his wanting her back? Kelly and his undermining her? Her reaction to Matthew at the motel, her anger? Her going to Las Vegas, Matthew pursuing her, her return? The friendship - and the future?
5. Kelly, sleazy, seeing him with Danielle, his friendship with Matthew, his being his buddy, going to the bank, the discussions? Taking Danielle to Las Vegas, turning against Matthew, brutality? The set-up for Posh, leaving him stranded, drugging him? Stealing the money? The comeuppance?
6. Eli and Klitz, their preoccupation with sex, especially Klitz, watching the videos, the phone calls to Matthew? In the laboratory? Sex preoccupation? Friendship, classes? Going to Las Vegas, the girls, their being pursued by the producer and the strong man? The making of the video?
7. Posh, the sex empire, in Las Vegas, his henchmen? Matthew robbing his house, the confrontation, the friendship? The sex education video, making a fortune, the interviews on television?
8. The school staff, the principal, the discussions about Matthew's behaviour, about the sex video and conceding that it could be useful?
9. The taken for granted attitude about the pornography industry - as just another industry? The seeming lack of moral perspective - and then the tut-tutting about the industry yet producing the sex video? Young people and the performance in the video?
10. A film that was both humorous and leering?
