Review of The Virgin Suicides (2000) by Art S — 08 Jan 2016

Sofia Coppola was born in '71, so it isn't plausible that she has genuine memories of 1974 when this film takes place. I'm not sure I do either. But the music from this period carried on for quite some time, particularly on the radio.

Coppola makes good use of music in the film, both as sonic wallpaper and to cue important moments, as Scorsese is also wont to do. It also becomes part of the plot when the boys trade songs with the Lisbon girls over the telephone later in the movie.

I'm remembering Heart, Styx, maybe early Bee Gees or Carpenters. Even now, these songs trigger a lot of sentiment in me, even a sort of free-floating kind without real memories attached. Of course, Coppola wrote her script about the five young girls who eventually commit suicide from a pre-existing book.

But the style with which she imbues the film is her own and it is refreshing and a delight. Kirsten Dunst takes a star-making turn or at least the camera gives her significant air time in a hazy sunlit seventies way so that she is the de facto star.

James Woods and Kathleen Turner make good constipated parents who cause all the problems. Now that we've seen the trajectory of Coppola's films, I guess we can say that her focus on style might have diminishing returns but you never can tell.