|
 It’s been a long time since teen gems like Pretty in Pink or Say Anything have been gifted upon American audiences. Instead, there’s been a glut of obnoxious, gross-out sex romps like American Pie or edgy, bordering on exploitative fare like Kids. There may be the occasional blip on the intellectual teen radar, but it seems a very long time since something as gutsy or genuine as Dare has hit theaters.
Based on a Columbia graduate short film, Dare follows the lives of three high school seniors as they struggle to grasp with who they are, how they want to be perceived and how to relate with each other in a meaningful way. Each of the characters has their own capsulated vignette involving the other two characters. The first follows Alexa (the powerful Emmy Rossum), a perfect student who appears to have control over all aspects of her life. She takes school seriously, specifically, her acting class. Alexa would like to be an actress someday and her drama class is vital. At the top of her story, two things are revealed. An alum of the high school who made good as an actor, Grant Matson (played wonderfully by the inimitable Alan Cumming), is going to be in town and evaluating the students’ scene studies and Alexa’s partner, the cool as ice outsider, Johnny (Zach Gilford), clearly couldn’t care less about doing well. All the while, her best friend Ben (the one actor who looks most like an actual high school student, Ashley Springer) stands by and supports her while he struggles with his own identity.
 While the cartoony opening credits and the first 10-15 minutes, which are scattered with expected giggles and awkward teen moments, feel unsure as to where the film is going to take viewers, once Alexa gets scathing, personal feedback from Grant, it becomes clear that Dare is not a teen comedy at all, and that writer David Brind is going to take audiences into very real territory with these characters.
Each of the three vignettes has their own feel: Alexa’s is rich in color and loud in music, Ben’s story is a bit more subdued and Johnny’s story is full of shaky, hand-held shots, hip-hop and grainy footage. This may seem like it’s a recipe to take the viewer out of the film and remind us that we’re watching a multimedia affair, but only a few times does the music become so loud or distracting as to be intrusive. Otherwise, the individual techniques for the separate stories work surprisingly well, giving each character their own feel while still maintaining their relative reality to each other.
The actors in the film, as well, are all remarkably talented. There does need to be a degree of suspension of disbelief from the audience to imagine that they are all high school aged children, but the thoughtful writing and nuanced performances soon chase away those nagging thoughts.
 What’s truly remarkable about Dare is how, when writer Brind and director Adam Salky veer into territory usually reserved for such exploitative auteurs as Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness) and Larry Clark (Kids, Bully), they maintain the dignity of the characters (and the actors) by keeping the story about their emotions as they find themselves in increasingly confusing situations that they are not yet able to fathom in their adolescent concept of reality.
This is what Dare is all about. In a time where we expect teenagers to grow up faster than ever, where they are surrounded by a sex-obsessed media, we have to take a step back and wonder how difficult it must be to actually grow up in the new millennium. Brind and Salky tackle such complicated hardships as a teenager not knowing who he or she is and the drastic steps they take to define who they think they are or who the people around them want them to be with class and decorum. Dare does teeter on the edge of being a bit confusing near the end, but at the last minute, the creative team saves the cast and the story from irrelevancy.
 Dare is a wonderful film that intelligently handles the trials of maturing in the modern age without exploiting its characters. It does, however, maybe err on the side of being a bit too cerebral, as viewers may walk out of the theater having enjoyed the film, but wondering why they didn’t walk out feeling more than they do.
Dare is now playing at the Laemmle Sunset 5.
For more information, visit the film’s official Web site.
|