The Kids Are Alright

"We tend to exalt the works that we're emotionally and intellectually ready for. And we expect the audience to be in the same spot in their lives as we are. There are teenagers who think that Grease or Titanic is the greatest movie ever made--it may indeed be the greatest movie they've seen. After all, their parents might have thought Gone With The Wind or Five Easy Pieces was the greatest movie ever made. Critics have engaged with so many works that they may forget that the young audience now has engaged with relatively few. Only a twerp would castigate an audience for its enjoyment of something."

- Pauline Kael to Newsweek, 1998

No promises, gang, but this could be the first and last time you'll ever see a Tapehead review begin with a heady quote from former New Yorker critic Pauline Kael. We've got an image to maintain, dammit! But if you'll allow me to indulge in some post-film grad loftiness, I'm going to applaud Kael for scoring one right on the nose as to what's wrong with the standard "film snob" attitude towards popular youth culture.

Witness the excessively negative and intolerant reactions to MGM's Disturbing Behavior during its brief and unsuccessful theatrical run this past summer. Genre enthusiasts more or less expected such venom anyway, since the film was hardly targeted at the crowd that gets excited when The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg gets re-released. But critic after critic vilified this harmless little number as a trite Dawson's Creek meets "Stepford Wives Redux" riff to capitalize on the Scream trend.

But so what if Disturbing Behavior IS, essentially, The Stepford Teens? Anyone who's going to snatch this one off the shelves or buy the DVD likely did not grow up with Ira Levin's novel or the Bryan Forbes adaptation starring Katherine Ross (or the bad TV sequel with Don Johnson for that matter). Sure, it's a tale that's been told and retold countless times before, but never to this generation in their voice.

The plot can be summed up as Christopher-Pike-meets-The-Terminal-Man: senior Steve Clark (James Marsden) relocates with his family to the seaside town of Cradle Bay and is initiated into the high school caste system of nerds and outcasts by witty slacker Gavin (Nick Stahl). A clique of scrubbed do-gooders known as "The Blue Ribbons" particularly irks Gavin and his freespirited galpal, Rachel (Katie Holmes). The Blue Ribbons ooze gooey "Up With People" sincerity and look like they stepped out of the malt shop in an Albert Zugsmith 50's melodrama. When Gavin's parents turn him over to an experimental program run by Dr. Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood), he emerges the next day as a Blue Ribbon automaton himself!

Before long, Steve and Rachel have uncovered that Caldicott is using computer chip implants to reprogram the teens. Side effects from the chip's over-stimulation of hormones and the pineal area result in the kids committing acts of murder, self-mutilation, and suicide. When Steve's parents volunteer him for "The Program", it's time to flee!

Given the X Files alumni behind the camera (director David Nutter, DOP John Bartley, and composer Mark Snow), and a screenplay from the talented Scott (Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead) Rosenberg, I expected a scarier ride. Disturbing Behavior is fast-paced and unpretentious, but like H20, it's almost TOO understated for its own good (in defense of the theatrical version, I did read that something like 20 minutes had been cut by the studio). For a film that challenges society's pressures to conform, it's surprisingly chaste in its treatment of hormonal impulses, social irresponsibility, and all-out violence.

But you don't criticize I Was A Teenage Frankenstein because it's not On The Waterfront. Disturbing Behavior will never be confused with The Exorcist, but I think Rosenberg's basic theme, as simple and naïve as it is, retains a certain timelessness and validity.

Disturbing Behavior might remind some of you die-hards of the 1981 gem Strange Behavior (AKA Dead Kids), written by Bill Condon (the upcoming Gods And Monsters) and directed by Michael Laughlin (Strange Invaders). Strange Behavior concerns the bloody rampage of some small town kids who have submitted to unusual experiments for money. The New Zealand-shot thriller stars Michael Murphy, Louise Fletcher, Fiona Lewis, and Scott Brady. While as equally uneven as Disturbing Behavior, Strange Behavior bears a quirkier stamp and is certainly worth a look.

- Maxx Renn