Teenage Emotions (Frédéric Da, 2021) (Patreon)

DISCLAIMER: It feels a bit odd to write a review of a film made by one of the subscribers to this very Patreon. But I've written about the work of friends and acquaintances before. (When you focus on the avant-garde, it's kind of inevitable. ) Still, hey Fred, hope you find these remarks valuable.

Since I suspect that most subscribers to Obscure Alternatives also read / subscribe to Mike D'Angelo's Words on Film, there's a very good chance you already know a bit about Teenage Emotions and the production difficulties that it faced due to Covid-19. Da teaches at the high school in L.A. where the film takes place, and the school closed due to the pandemic. So although several narrative threads appear to be mostly complete, there are some that seem a bit stunted, resulting in a film that gestures toward a balance and parallelism of focus that simply isn't there. What can you do?

What we have of Teenage Emotions, though, is rather remarkable in its intimacy and scope. This is a work of directed improvisation, and some of the naturalistic exchanges Da coaxed from his cast exhibit both an impressive coherence and a jarring lack of self-consciousness. The result is a hybrid film that at times feels like a new rendition of Wiseman's High School for the 2020s, trading on the fact that young people are now so involved with technological auto-surveillance that their every interaction participates in actorly presentation, to some extent. Several scenes are shot by participants on their phones, and constant likelihood of being recorded by someone permeates these kids' everyday presentation of self.

This is what makes certain moments of Teenage Emotions seem awkward or misplaced. Some interactions play more like theatre, suggesting that Da may have wanted to create a film that more obviously resembled fiction, or a work that set up a dichotomy between passages that varied in their naturalism. For example, the segments involving science geek Grant and his older brother Michael display a mannered performance style (especially from Michael) that clashes with the segments involving Jaya, Ava, and others.

This contrast may be a byproduct of the production constraints, since Da may have needed to include most of what he had shot. (Feel free to chime in on this, Fred.) Overall, Teenage Emotions distributes its attention quite well, functioning as an ensemble piece while still remaining bounded and recursive in its form. There are only a few segments that feel out of place within the overall structure. The smug, manipulative kid asking to copy someone's homework, for example, seems dropped in out of nowhere, since we don't know anything about those kids when the scene appears. At the same time, the guy's conspicuous display of white-dude privilege was undoubtedly too exemplary to leave out of the film.

Within its 74 minutes, Teenage Emotions introduces so many subtle differences in Da's treatment of the material that, even if it's occasionally disjointed, it suggests many avenues the completed film might have explored. There are hints that gradually emerge that some of the film's subjects -- most notably Jaya and Jayden -- are poised at moments of epiphany, about to undergo significant changes in who they are and how they perceive themselves. To a lesser extent, Ava and Silas (?), whose romantic notions of emotional commitment begin to collide at the end, seem to suggest a story that's just starting. These pivotal moments end up emphasizing the stasis of other characters, like Clementine, Azizi, and Janeiro.

But here's the bottom line: Teenage Emotions is bursting with promise, and its compelling, illuminating moments far outweigh its relative dead ends. I can't wait to see Fred's next project, when he's not facing off against world-historical limitations. Also: Jaya radiates effortless charisma. She could easily follow in her mother's footsteps if she so desires.