NOW AND THEN

US, 1995, 100 minutes, Colour.
Christina Ricci, Rosie O' Donnell, Thora Birch, Melanie Griffith, Gaby Hoffman, Demi Moore, Ashleigh Aston Moore, Rita Wilson, Devon Sawa, Walter Sparrow, Chloris Leachman, Lolita Davidovich, Janeane Garofalo, Hank Azariah, Bonnie hunt.
Directed by Lesley Link Glatter.

Now and Then is a film of particular female sensibility, the director, the writer, the main performers. Men are particularly in the background except for a strange character, Crazy Pete (Walter Sparrow) whose family had been murdered. There are also some boys with whom the teenage girls clash, and, in some moments of objectification, the girls see the boys naked at the swimming hole, steal their clothes and see them running naked away.

The film is a memoir, set in the 1990s with flashbacks to the 1970s.

Four significant actresses portray the girls in the 1990s, coming together for reminiscence, for a birth, for continuing their pledge of friendship.

The actresses who play the girls are also significant, although Ashleigh Aston Moore suffered from illness and died comparatively young. There are older women who are glimpsed throughout the film, Chloris Leachman, Lola Davidovich, Janeane Garofalo, Bonnie Hunt.

The film is rather episodic, scenes at home, the clashes with the boys, cemetery scenes and the discovery of the tombstone of the boy that was murdered, research in the newspaper archives, the discovery of the truth.

Entertaining in its way.

1. A memoir? The 1990s and back to the 1970s? The intercutting of the episodes?

2. The focus on the women, on the adolescent girls? Men in the background only?

3. The strong cast, the adult women, the teenage girls? Resemblances? The credibility of the performances?

4. The 1990s, the town, homes, outdoors, cemetery, establishing the cast, the names, the characters, the friendship, contacts? Careers, diverse, those who stayed home, those who went away? The pregnancy? The group arriving? Remembering the past, happiness, squabbles, regrets? The development of friendship? The pledge?

5. The 1970s, the girls, their age, puberty, sex, the period, boys, talk, the interactions with the boys, seeing them swimming and naked? The challenge of the boys? The frankness of the talk?

6. The four women: Roberta, staying in the town, tough, assisting at the birth? Samantha, introverted, the writer, self-doubt? Teeny, glamorous, Hollywood career? Chrissy, staying in the town, traditional, pregnant, the birth? The women reunited?

7. The four girls: Roberta, her leadership, influence? Samantha, quiet, reflective? Teeny, the attraction of glamour, self-assertive, sex? Chrissy, more traditional, ignorant about sex, yet wanting them to bond?

8. The various episodes, the clashes with the boys, watching them swimming, taking their clothes? The visit to the witch and getting information from her? The cemetery, the mysterious gravestone? Their asking people, the grandmother and her reticence? The parents? Going to the newspapers, looking at the past papers? Getting some information? Finally discovering the truth?

9. The character of Crazy Pete, suspicious in the town, his saving Samantha? The truth, his family, the deaths and their affect? Talking with Samantha and getting some peace? Samantha and her reticence, finally telling the others?

10. The glimpses of the parents, their attitudes, influence on the girls?

11. The 1990s, the reunion – going back into the past, relishing the past? Now and then? And the future?