Cicadas

I saw this movie tonight at the Austin Film Festival and was quite impressed by it. It's a movie about growing up and relationships with family and friends. It's a low-budget film, but very well-done, and the acting is good. I particularly liked the fact that it was a coming-of-age story from a girl's perspective.

Cicadas is an awesome coming-of-age movie by a marvelous young director with a small budget that is sure to be looked back at years from now as the first sign of her brilliance. It centers around three kids who are basically left to fend for themselves as the parents have to be on the road making their livings -- a common problem in modern-day America. The young cast of major characters all do a wonderful job, especially Bryan Chafin as Simon and Lindsay Broockman as his older sister. Kat Candler directed, produced, and wrote this touching, at times painful movie, and should not be missed!

If Cicadas had been made before 1975, it would have snuck up on and charmed the film viewers of the time, becoming the sleeper of the year. Back then Hollywood might have even made this film. Jaws had not yet established the high-concept blockbuster formula, and Star Wars had not yet made Hollywood lustful for the mega-profit movie that has increasingly shut "small films" out of the theatrical market.

Cicadas has no "high concept", no stars, no instantly marketable hook. What is does have is deft and insightful writing, directing and editing by filmmaker Kat Candler, remarkable performances by the young cast (Lindsay Broockman, Brandon Howe, Paul Conrad, and Bryan Chafin particularly stand out), and a big, but unsentimental heart. It's a coming-of-age story focusing on young, intelligent, frustrated, misfit kids becoming adults, using the cicada's life cycle as a gentle metaphor for the youngsters' own transformation.

Candler has written subtle, honest, understated dialog that lets 16 year olds sound and act like 16 year olds and avoids stilted speeches and contrivances. They don't always know what to say or how to be with each other or why they feel the way they do. They are people, not types. They live their lives in fits and spurts, rather than follow a plot line like trains on a track.

I've purposely not focused on the plot, because it might sound agonizing familiar. Nerdy smart girl is left to care for her older and younger brother as parents travel frequently on business. Friendless, she meets the new boy in high school, a smoldering, mysterious boy who is there as a consequence of his trouble at another school. He is closed off and tough, fatherless, his mother lost in the bottle since the tragic loss of her first born son. The boy is also a remarkably sensitive poet. They are drawn to and repelled from each other throughout the twists of the tale, which weaves in the subplots of the nerdy, boy-scout, entomologist little brother and the iconoclastic, artistic older brother, both outcasts as well trying to find their place in the world.

It could have been cliche, but manages to be a rich and engrossing tale, full of little, individual rings of truth rather than trying to deliver one big one at the end. And in doing so, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Cicadas in not a perfect film, its limited budget occasionally hamstringing it for tiny moments, but it is a beautiful one, minor warts and all.

I saw Cicadas at the Austin Film Festival last night. Kat Candler joins the growing number of independent filmmakers who are turning to digital filmmaking as a method of bringing their vision to life. Overall, the film was impressive in many ways. Candler shows that she definitely knows what do do behind the camera. Her composition and eye for detail were right on the money. Still, I felt that the story treaded on already worn ground. The all too familiar "coming of age in a small town" theme is something that we've seen time and time again, especially in small Texas communities. ("The Last Picture Show," and "Dancer, Texas.") Chandler takes a somewhat fresh perspective, setting the story from a a 16 year old girl's point of view (I don't know the actresses name, but she was impressive), but the overall effect is the same. Still, given the budget and the fact that this is the director's and many of the actor's first efforts, this film is worthwhile for seeing just as an example of the potential for digital filmmaking, especially on low budgets. The question should be raised though, what role does the digital filmmaker have in the cinematic world right now? I'm still waiting to see the film that really puts digital filmmaking on the scene. I'm hoping we don't have to wait for Lucas to do it for us in 2002, I'd much rather see a smaller, more powerful film really break the bounds and show the world the medium's true potential. Whatever it is, it's got to be something fresh, something we haven't seen before - no easy task in a business where so many things have been tried and recycled over and over again. As for Cicadas - I think it's a good stepping stone for Candler, and I hope that someone sees this film and gives her more work.

Cicadas, a film shot by an obviously talented, earnest and dedicated crew, really hit home for me. They clearly got the most out of their budget and their actors. Growth, 1st love, alienation, joy, the search for meaning in a sometimes confusing teen world - it's all there and more. I loved it, and look for big things to come from Director Candler, Producer Bate, et al.