The film was directed and written by Duane Hopkins and produced by Sam Haillay. It won the best short award at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2003. It explores the relationship of a young, teenage couple who are both most probably experiencing all these different feelings for the first time and, also, the film raises themes and issues such as transition, change, responsibility and immaturity.
The film opens with two teenagers shouting and being generally volatile to each other with explicit language etc. The editing emphasises the violence between them with the swift jump cutting. In addition, the cuts also highlight the instability, unpredictable and erratic behaviour taking place. Upon further analysis, the fast editorial pace adds dynamism and gives the scene energy, which is strategic on the director’s part as it keeps the audience engaged straight away while giving the scene a sense of alertness and even danger for the teenagers.
After the argument, the boy and the girl are seen walking away from each other in a long shot. This emphasises the divide between them while raising the binary opposition of separation vs. Attachment. To expand upon this, the fences in the background right behind where the girl is standing could be a metaphor for how trapped and caged in the girl feels emotionally whereas the boy leading into the darkness could represent how he is emotionally unaware by trying to block out what’s happening, as teenage boys at that age tend to not want to express real emotions while girls are opposite and find it easier to show their feelings.
The following wide shot of the girl situated in the centre of the frame accentuates her isolation and lack of control because she is gazing out into the distance as if she is unsure of what to do. Also, it’s possible that she’s craving escape by the way she’s looking out; this reinforces the previous idea of the metaphorical, emotional cage. The next shot, a close up of the boy, allows us to understand he’s now aware that he’s done wrong by his facial expression and the diegetic sound of the girl sobbing, the guilt is therefore noticeable, however, he doesn’t want to make the first move because of his pride. Also, he selfishly feels pity for himself.
In terms of the diegetic sound, we can hear the girl breathing heavily which is a directorial decision because, in reality, in that type of area you wouldn’t be able to hear breathing that easily. I think this stresses the frustration, as does the handheld camera, because it gives us a sense of disorientation. The shot immediately after that of the girl is indicative of how she feels the same, she wants him to come to her and we can see this through her distressed, upset expression as well as the fact she’s stood right where he can see her. She wants attention from him so she’s lingering in the field where she’s in sight for the boy to notice her.
As the girl storms towards the boy in the tracking shot from behind, we expect a standoff between them because of her body language, posture and the pace she is moving at. However, she says to him quite adamantly “don’t you dare follow me!” and the subtextual interpretation for this is “follow me!” Because she clearly wants attention and wants him to understand how she is feeling and what he’s done wrong but he just continues to sit there, doing nothing, much to her dissatisfaction.
After she storms off again, she waits round the corner because, to reiterate, she wants him to come after her. There is then a point of view shot from the boy which conveys how he is contemplating going after her, but is unsure. When he finally decides to follow her, he sees her walking swiftly away. This is to show he is now too late and the girl expected him to catch on sooner. Teenage boys that age are emotionally illiterate and slow in situations like this whereas girls are ahead emotionally and seem to instinctively know what they want and expect from the outset.
The titles are very childlike and the typography carries immature, carefree connotations and, so far, we have been subjected to that by the teenagers arguing and attention seeking. The next close up of the girl communicates how she could be feeling. For example, her blackened eyes show sleep deprivation and exhaustion, this could even lead off to more complex themes and issues like mental illness. Following this, the camera cuts swiftly from the boy to girl, who are both walking quickly and I believe this shows that although they’re far away from each other, there movements coincide which brings a sense of togetherness.
These two main characters are now given identities thanks to the boys’ (Steven’s) mother asking him about the girl (Jessica). I believe their names have deliberately been held back until now to make them slightly ambiguous so we really have to think about the reasons for their relationship breakdown. There is emotional distance between Steven and his mother as shown by the way he responds to her interrogative manner. This could be a result of their age and reinforces the idea of young, teenage boys not being emotionally “ready”.
The next shot sustains the idea of their togetherness even though they are apart from each other because of their placement in the frame. Steven is closed in at home smoking a cigarette while Jessica is in the wilderness listening to her music. She has a sense of freedom but isolation because of the desolate surroundings while he is suffering entrapment, physically and emotionally. Therefore, there is an inherent contradiction, also shown by the way they look at their rings, they are binding although physically apart.
When he finally comes to the realisation that he should go after her, he races in front of her on a bike while she is simply walking. He stops so far in front so he can be ahead. It’s also a sign of immaturity. When he plucks up the courage to speak to her, he asks if she “wants a backy” (which, presumably, in this means a ride on the back of his bike) to which she rejects him by explicitly showing him her middle finger with an expressionless face, proving it’s too late for him, he should’ve caught on how she was feeling quicker. This has clearly dented his pride and he begins to annoy her which, again, exposes his immaturity. He succeeds in annoying her as she tells him angrily to “just fuck off”, but he doesn’t go anywhere showing persistence and proving that he cares even though he internalises feelings while she externalises them.
There is a sense of desperation when Jessica finally manages to catch a lift off someone in a car. He calls her name but she refuses to respond leaving him with no choice but to ride as fast as he can on after her on his bike. I think the shot we see of him in the mirror communicates the idea she’s reflecting upon what happened and how she wants to get away from him but can’t. In the next shot, Steven is now the isolated one situated in the centre of the frame. He calls Jessica to which she says “what do you want?” He replies “Nothing...” followed by “...will you meet me?” He’s in denial at this point because he does want something yet he’s still trying to shut it out by automatically saying “nothing”. This, again, sustains the ideas about teenage boy’s emotional literacy.
They later meet as the sun is setting which could be a metaphorical representation for the end of their relationship. They are more civilised to each other this time around. He’s even polite to her as shown by the way he holds the open for her to go inside.
There is a preconception that teenagers that are their age sort out their differences by having sex, probably because of the fact they’re going through puberty. When this is shown, there are several jump cuts back and forth, similar to the beginning of the film. However, instead of showing them breaking up, the shots are showing them reunite. It appears all the disagreements between them added up to sexual tension because the following shot shows them laying together peacefully. Afterwards, Steven asks whether they’re still seeing each other and that he needs to know now. This reinforces the fact teenage boys need everything straightforward for them to understand it. Jessica replies she’s unsure which communicates the complexity of her emotions. To elaborate upon this, both of their faces are half blackened due to the mise en scene because of the lighting ratio. This conveys how they both don’t know what they want even though boy comes across as though he does through the dialogue. The film ends with the girl writing a letter and the boy exposed due to the mise-en-scene of a car lighting. It’s ambiguous as we are not shown exactly what she is writing. Despite this, we can see that she has written “I love you”.
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