The Exploding Girl

The title "The Exploding Girl" is figurative not literal. I would add "of course" but that's not as obvious given movies nowadays. This is a low-budget, independent character study.

It's about Ivy on college break, back home in New York City. Ivy struggles with love and friendship. And the film-maker shows us this with really slow-moving, seemingly unimportant scenes mired in the noisy streets of New York City. I know the city is basically supposed to be its own character, but the loud, constant bus and car noises and obstruction just lowered the quality of the film.

Zoe Kazan's Ivy is very cute and likable, but even with her epilepsy, her college problems seem minor compared to the stress that other college girls experience. Her boyfriend back at college was painted one-dimensionally. And although I didn't mind Al, the reason given for him moving in with Ivy was very odd and never explained.

It's called a "discreet character study". I will agree with that in the sense that meaning was hard to find, dialogue was indiscernible and silent at times, and reasons for few things happening was kept private from the audience. The brilliance displayed in the poster is only found once in the film, and is not enough to watch it. "The Exploding Girl" is only for the very discerning film viewer who likes slow-moving character studies of little importance.

I am always grateful to see films like "The Exploding Girl" that rely on an economy of cinematic technique to tell a story that is about very human topics in way that makes the viewer engage. It is eminently visual, as a move should be. Listening to the audio track would leave you with nothing grasp. The lack of explication only intensified the sense of youthful tragedy for things that go unsaid and opportunities missed. There's always a problem for some people about small, personal films like this one: they aren't big, flashy or hair-raising. What this film zeroed in on is the pain and uncertainty of youth, and especially of young love. To that end, it was poignant and dead on.

The only real problem I have to make about this film is that the filmmakers got too carried away with street-level camera shots that were willing to allow anything and anybody that intervened between the actors to stay in the shot, which resulted in a couple of overlong shots of blurred-out passersby or their body parts to obscure the characters. Okay, I get it that Ivy was just one more passenger on the train; but the indeterminate dark mass of fellow passenger blocking the shot for 15 or 20 seconds was just plain clunky.

Ivy (Zoe Kazan) is epileptic and returns home to Brooklyn on summer break from college. Her friend Al joins her to sleep on her couch when his room is rented out by his parents. She struggles to stay in contact with boyfriend Greg. Greg gets into a car accident with his high school friend Rebecca and decides to stay with her in the hospital. Ivy starts hanging out with Al.

Don't get me wrong. Zoe Kazan is lovely. She's beautiful and has a charm about her. It doesn't mean that watching her alone for most of the movie is particularly exciting. She has some interesting phone calls. She really needs the second to be in more of the movie and he needs to be played by somebody more compelling. I understand the idea of being alone in a crowded city and losing one's connection. However, this movie lacks the drive to propel it.

I was expecting this movie to be good. It met my expectations in that regard. I wasn't expecting it to hit so close to my heart. I wanted so badly for the two characters to be together. The little subtleties of him feeding her soup when she was sick, her getting jealous that she was talking about other girls, her waiting for him to get home.. it was just so sweet. Those are the little things you notice when you fall in love.

10/10.

Okay, are we just supposed to ignore the whole silly, contrived plot device to have these two end up living in the same home. His parents not only rented his room out even though they knew he was coming home, but also never bothered to tell him. So he ends up there, and they still won't let him stay in their house. They must really hate their son!! So immediately there's this ridiculously stupid situation to overcome before trying to settle in and enjoy the movie. It never happened for me. The lazy writing just insisted on rearing itself in eye rolling scenes. Zoe is lovely as alway, Unfortunately there's nothing her to showcase her amazing abilities and the total goober of a friend adds absolutely nothing to the movie. He reminds me of a pile of dog doo on the living room floor that nobody bothered to clean up. The conversations on the phone with the boyfriend are so unconvincing and lame it made my head hurt. Dialogue is just so terrible in this. Like she will tell her friend that a gift is amazing and she loves it and what's his response? Do you like it? She just said she loved it two seconds ago!! Or she'll describe her pain and symptoms to her doctor and she will reply with Are you okay? In fact if I had a doller for every time someone asked that question in this stupid movie I'd be set for a few weeks anyway. Disastrous effort.