Puberty Blues

Puberty Blues is a movie about being a teenager.. unlike it's American, high budget counterparts such as Pretty in Pink or Fast Times at Ridgemont High, it is a very honest look at life as a teenager. It centres around two girls who are trying to fit in with the "surfie chick" crowd and to do so must participate in the usual teenage antics (sex, drinking, cheating on History tests etc.). What the film lacks in plot, budget and acting it makes up for with sheer honesty - there's no ultra happy "feel-good" ending like in the formentioned counterparts, but instead you are left with the impression that life really was like that for them. All in all, one to be seen, but forgotten.

This is an early effort from acclaimed Aussie director Bruce Beresford. It was made during the period of the "Australian New Wave" of the 70's and early 80's when there was a proliferation of both of government-sponsored artistic fare and more commercially-minded genre fare emerging from Down Under. The story concerns two teenage girls who decide to join the popular clique at school, even though that mostly seems to mean lying around sunbathing with their most beautiful but most vapid female peers or having embarrassing sex with dimwitted male surfers in the back of a boogie van at the drive-in while all their friends sit in the front.

This is a well-made and fairly realistic film, but it suffers from the same problems as a lot of the teen-oriented movies made in other countries. First off, both the female and male characters look at least five years too old to be teenagers and they are all unusually attractive. One of the female leads kind of approaches ordinary-looking, but the other one, and about every other actor in the cast (even the supposed "nerds") is extraordinarily good-looking. Frankly, it would be easier to sympathize with these virginal girls being taken advantage of by muscle-headed male surfers if they didn't all look like Nichole Kidman (who isn't in this, but would have blended right in). Beresford's camera also spends so much time lingering on barely clad, nubile bodies that I sometimes felt like I was watching a David Hamilton film. Not that there's anything wrong with that necessarily, but it does kind of detract from the seriousness of the film a little bit.

On the plus side, this is an interesting portrait of the late 70's Australian teen surf culture, and it is certainly well-crafted as a film. There was a reason Beresford would go onto to international fame with films like "Breaker Morant". This is somewhat flawed, but an interesting film nevertheless.

Unintentionally hilarious? Well sometimes yes, but it's also a film that deserves to be more than just "forgotten" Why? because it depicts, in a fairly accurate manner, a slice of Australian culture from the 1970's. Based on the book of the same name by Kathy Lette & Gabrielle Carey, it's the story of two teenage girls growing up near the beachside suburb of Cronulla. Watching the film today, you wish that the characters weren't so one-dimensional, and that a more balanced view of society wasn't shown, but this is the girls' story & it's told from their perspective. Anyone who lived near a beach or even just went to school in Australia around that time can surely recognise some of the scenes depicted. Other people may be merely baffled however, as films with a strong cultural relevance sometimes have little or no meaning to outsiders. Good or bad though, this is not an Australian film to simply dismissed.

On the surface, this film can be seen for what it is, a stark realization of teen angst in Cronulla, at the start of the eighties. Inseparable friends, Debbie and Sue, want to travel with the cool gang, but first must endure the humiliation and sucking up to get there. Granted, these scenarios were very real in that very real time. PB is a very realistic movie, with lot a laughable moments, because they're relatable. It also has one tragic moment too. PB is very entertaining, I must says and deals with real teen issues. But to be honest, I couldn't stand the guys of this popular group, more a bunch of rude surfie pigs, which to be part of em', guy or girl, wouldn't be worth the trouble. After all, I have my pride. In fact, they got more annoying, as the movie went on. The message sent here, is "be you for you are, and don't conform to fit in with others, while letting your real values or talents suffer". When the two girls finally excel in their tries of surfing, it's a morning of victory, despite some of the negative reactions from those pigs. Great opening wide shot of Cronulla beach, crawling with beachgoers, plus I like Bruce's meeting with Debbie's olds. Almost priceless, as also the interior walls of his panel van, filled with lewd pictures. Also, watch how quick it takes for a whole cake to go off, when devoured by those thankless pigs. Very real performances that are in no way great, but convincing, the older veteran stars better. Much alike, FJ Holden you could say, that should of also spawned a t.v. show, but this movie is too basic, and simplistic, especially if viewing it, in today's times, with not the most original dialogue.

Movie about two Australian girls--Debbie (Nell Schofield) and Sue (Sue Knight)--and what happens when they become girlfriends of two surfer guys.

I caught this at an art cinema here in America in 1981. Technically I was still a teenager (I was 19) so I was interested in seeing how Australian teens acted. Script wise there's nothing new here. It shows the usual teenage adventures dealing with dating, sex, suicide etc etc. I always knew what was going to happen before it did but I was never bored. What I found interesting was, despite the accent and a few changes in clothes and hair, these teenagers aren't much different than American teens. They had many of the same difficulties and hang-ups. Also this was based on a book from a real surfer girl and her true life adventures and (I heard) it was a faithful adaptation of it. The acting was just OK but the actors were attractive and this was well-made and pretty interesting. So this is no unsung masterpiece but a pretty accurate portrayal of what it's like being a teenager and trying to be with the popular kids. I give it a 7.