Name: Retro Film Review: Whatever (1998)
Item: Whatever
Rating: 70
Author: @drax

(source:tmdb.org)

Watching period films or contemporary-themed films made during particular times represents one of the simpler ways to perceive certain periods of history. Reagan years aren't exception. The way future generations are going to experience 1980s America is not in the newspaper clipping, contemporary testimonies, documentary footage or boring statistics - they are going to see those times through the Hollywood films. Life of American teenagers in those times is going to be imagined through 1980s Hollywood teen comedies. Of course, that doesn't mean that the image of an era portrayed in those films is going to be accurate. One of the film-makers displeased with such perception is Susan Skoog. In Whatever, her 1998 semi-autobiographic drama, she tried to give more accurate depiction of those times.

Plot is set in small New Jersey town in 1981. Anna Stockard (played by Liza Weil) is 17-year old girl who, instead of thinking about upcoming high school graduation, dreams about artistic career. Her divorced mother Carol (played by Kathryn Rossiter) advises her to make her living by acquiring rich husband. Mr. Chaminsky (played by Frederic Forrest) pleads that she at least try to enroll into prestigious art school in New York. Her best friend Brenda Talbot (played by Chad Morgan) offers another alternative in the life that revolves around alcohol, drugs and casual sex. Anna hangs around Brenda and spends increasing amounts of time partying which begins to affect her school grades and her love life isn't much better. Things get complicated when Brenda hooks up with Zak (played by Dan Montano), young man who spent time behind bars for dealing drugs.

Shot with relatively small budget, Whatever easily recreates early 1980s America. Unlike other films that try to exploit nostalgia, Whatever is more perceptive and its author is more interested in things that were wrong and uncomfortable than in things that make people lament the passing of "good old times". For Skoog those times weren't very good - even before word "AIDS" entered vocabularies. Youth of the day is portrayed as confused, disconnected with adults and completely unaware of the troubles ahead. It isn't surprising that this bleak portrayal of 1980s wasn't very popular among those few people who had seen it.

Whatever doesn't have a strong plot - it looks more like a series of loosely connected vignettes. This approach deprives Whatever of any strong catharsis, while, on the other hand, it allows Skoog to pay more attention to some finer details. This is especially evident in the scene where one of the protagonists loses virginity - the scene is utterly realistic, un exploitative and completely un-erotic. The acting in the film is very good, despite the cast not being well-known. The only recognisable face belongs to Fredric Forrest who excels in small role. Whatever might be unpleasant, but it is a good film that works as powerful antidote to too much 1980s nostalgia.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on June 21st 2004)