Tired of movies based on YA tearjerkers and dystopian potboilers? Refreshingly, Laura Kasischke writes novels for grownups. As for Gregg Araki, he often makes films about teenagers that only adults are old enough to watch. It might seem like an unlikely combination of sensibilities, but it mostly works in Araki’s adaptation of “White Bird in a Blizzard.”
It is the late 1980s, but Eve Connor acts like she just walked out of a Douglas Sirk movie. Rather than dying on the inside, the ostensibly perfect homemaker makes her family miserable, particularly her husband, Brock.
Their daughter Kat tries to stay out of the fray, preferring to hang with her hipster outcast friends and hook up with Phil, her pseudo-boyfriend, who lives across the street. Yet, she still notices her mother’s increasingly erratic behavior in the days leading up to her mysterious disappearance.
Told in retrospect, sort of like a sexually charged, had-I-only-known Mary Roberts Rinehart novel, “White Bird” examines the ways Kat Connor deals with her mother’s absence—a process that definitely includes resentment and denial. Still, certain opportunities come with mystery, such as her semi-regular trysts with the investigating officer, Det. Scieziesciez.
He has his own Nancy Grace-like theories regarding Kat’s mother’s fate, but she does not want to hear them. Yet, when she returns from her first semester of college, Kat suddenly starts to crave some closure.
Although “White Bird” is downright restrained compared to Araki’s wickedly entertaining “Kaboom” and most of his prior films, he is still working with familiar elements, especially the horny teenagers. He also goes for broke with the third act’s twists that should satisfy his cult indie fanbase, but it is really a period domestic mystery and works rather well in that context.
It is hard to think of the late 1980s and early 1990s as a period setting, but Araki and the design team capture the era’s look, texture, music, and zeitgeist quite well. Connor’s frequently self-referential narration might take some viewers out of the film, but fans will understand a Gregg Araki joint is the perfect place for knowing sarcasm.
He also has a perfect mouthpiece in Shailene Woodley. Forget about those love-struck teens with cancer in “The Fault in Our Stars.” This should be considered her breakout star-vehicle, because she carries the film through sheer verve and attitude.
Of course, Eva Green was born to play a hot mess like Eve Connor and she delivers accordingly. Christopher Meloni sneaks up on viewers quite efficaciously as the compliant but tightly wound Brock Connor, but unfortunately, Shiloh Fernandez’s vacuous presence becomes increasingly problematic for Phil from the block.
Instead of an over-the-top bacchanal, “White Bird” represents quite a richly realized accomplishment of mise-en-scène. Somehow Araki maintains a vibe that is simultaneously nostalgic and insidious, getting some suitably cagey work from his cast.
Recommended for fans of subversive mystery-thrillers, “White Bird in a Blizzard” opens this Friday, Oct. 24, in New York at the Landmark Sunshine.
‘White Bird in a Blizzard’
Director: Gregg Araki
Starring: Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Christopher Meloni
Running time: 1 hour, 31 minutes
Release date: Oct. 24
Rated R
3.5 stars out of 5
Joe Bendel writes about independent film and lives in New York. To read his most recent articles, please visit www.jbspins.blogspot.com
