Long time, no blog! But I'm back with a movie rec I just couldn't resist. The other day I recorded a movie called Gretchen thinking (thanks to the description: Loner girl meets underachieving boy who opens up her mind) it would be some cheesy Donnie Darko spin-off I hadn't heard of. Boy, was I wrong. It turned out to be quite the gem of a film.
It's about a 17 year old girl named, can you guess? Gretchen, who must have some form of autism because she's just that inept at dealing with people in social situations. She also has the worst taste in clothes (even if the movie does take place in the 80's, which isn't 100% clear) and boys, tending towards those even more bizarre than she. One boy in particular, Ricky, catches her eye and when Gretchen catches Ricky macking with another girl, Gretchen's resulting behavior sends her on a whirlwind adventure that takes her to an "emotional growth boarding school," a really lame rave, her long lost father, and eventually jail.
The best part about all this is Gretchen, herself - she's basically a female version of Napoleon Dynamite. But the movie on the whole is like if you took Napoleon Dynamite and gave it the gravity of Me and You and Everyone We Know, because the movie is really more about Gretchen's attempts at relating to other people then it is about Gretchen just being ridiculous.
I was really surprised, and in a totally pleasant way, by Gretchen. I kind of want to show it to everyone I know, but I can't find it anywhere. I can't even find a trailer. But the Sundance site did have a clip from the movie, so here you go:
Gretchen was written and directed by Steve Collins and stars Courtney Davis and Stephen Root.
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