Review of Afterschool (2009) by Jon H — 20 Mar 2010

I typed 10 different first sentences for this review and I can't seem to find a way to describe what exactly goes on in this movie. The IMDB short synopsis says "A Internet-addicted prep-school student captures the drug overdose of two girls." And the long synopsis reads "Robert is a young American student at an elite East Coast preparatory school who accidentally captures on camera the tragic death of two classmates. Their lives become memorialized as part of an audio-visual assignment designed to speed up the campus-wide healing process. But the video memorial assignment results in an atmosphere of paranoia and unease among students and teachers." Aside for the misuse of "a" and "an," That short synopsis does nothing to describe this movie. The story follows Rob, a 15ish teenager at a prep school. He looks at the internet a few times in the movie, but nothing out of the ordinary for a teenage boy. The long synopsis talks about how the video memorial causes paranoia and uneasiness on campus and that's not true. In fact, the memorial is only a very small part of this movie.

I put both synopses in to prove a point; to prove that there really isn't one way to describe this movie. While filming a media project for class, Rob accidentally films 2 girls dying after running into a hallway because they snorted cocaine laced with rat poison. Why rat poison? I don't know. I guess rich kids have nothing better to do. Naturally, everyone on campus is scared and sad. Students are told not to do drugs. Rob is asked to make a memorial of the girls since he witnessed it and has an interest in film. He makes the memorial but it's too artsy for his superior and a new, lighter and more politically correct one is made. The end.

The end? But that sounds boring. Well, honestly this movie is a bit boring and one either has to be a pretentious "art-fag" that loves scoreless movies with unconventional direction. Or one just has to think like me. I love movies about teenagers. Teenagers are screwed up balls of confused mass and they make for great movies. This movie shows everything through the lens of a camera, cell or through Rob's eyes. As Rob is learning in his literature class, he's looking at his teachers cleavage, or her pretty face. As people talk, he zones out and looks past them or over their heads or at another part of their body. Antonio Campos does a really good job at capturing this. From the outside, it just looks like crazy and random directing but when we get inside Rob's head, it's clear we're seeing everything from his perspective.

This movie touches on the internet and media streaming sites such as Youtube. When we start the movie, we're shown typical videos we'd see on Youtube, laughing babies, a crazy girl fight, cute animals playing instruments and some random gruesome clips of war. Throw in Sadam's hanging and we have the internet as we know it today. Following these clips, we see a porn clip where a girl is being degraded and called names. It's here where we begin to see things from Rob's point of view because he's the one watching the porn clip. Many of these videos pop up throughout the movie. When girls fight in his school, Rob and his roommates are on the internet watching. Rob's life becomes of interest on the internet when a fight between him and his roommate is filmed. It's just a small way to show how the teens interact with the internet and the media that's downloaded from it.

I'll say it again, this movie is pretty boring. Not a lot happens. The most climactic scene comes with the girls overdose. So how do I feel about this movie? I like it. A lot. Go ahead, lump me in the category of those pretentious art-house fags. From time to time I like to simply sit back and watch life happen in a movie. I know that sounds cheesy and slightly retarded but that's what this is. Campos creates a sense of reality by putting you inside the character, eliminating the need for a score, and making you feel awkward with long silences, extended shots and awkward teenage sex in the forest. Sound familiar? Yeah it's really easy to compare this movie to something like Elephant or anything Gus Van Sant like. One could even compare it to a Haneke film with its dialog-less scenes and tendency to focus the camera on one single character for extended periods of time.

If you want a break from conventional movies and you just want to shake your head and say "Ha! Silly teenagers," then this movie is for you. It's real, it's awkward, and borderline hipster bullshit.