New kids on the Blockers
“THE past is a foreign country,” author L.B. Hartley once wrote. “They do things differently there.”
It is highly unlikely that the writer of sensitive works such as The Go-Between had rowdy, raucous teen sex comedies in mind when he made such a statement.
But, hey, we’ve kicked open this door, so let’s see where it leads.
In all honesty, it was the release in cinemas this week of the new movie Blockers — one such rowdy, raucous teen sex comedy — that got me thinking about Hartley’s famous quote.
Blockers, the story of a trio of parents on a misguided quest to ‘save’ their daughters from a pact to lose their virginity on the night of the big highschool formal, would at first glance seem to be in the tradition of a type of a movie stretching back decades.
You’ll remember the type if you spent any time in a video store (remember those?) back in the ’80s and ’90s — young dudes trying like crazy to get lucky with hot babes, all the while making life hell for any stuffy authority figures who tried to cramp their style.
Here’s the thing about most of these movies: they’re not good.
By which I mean they’re shoddily made and hammily acted, and any enjoyment you get from them is probably driven by nostalgia. (There are other reasons, but this is a family newspaper so we won’t go into that.)
For people who were around then, it’s a fun reminder of more carefree times; for those who weren’t, it’s a time capsule of a different era.
Because looking at the movies of the ’80s, ’90s and even the early 2000s through 2018 eyes is sometimes like looking at a transmission from a different planet.
I’m trying to not come off as a scold or a prude here, mainly because I truly believe the less enlightened aspects of such raunchy romps were a result of ignorance rather than insensitivity.
(I know, it’s no excuse. But we didn’t have the internet back in the ’80s, so people didn’t know as much.) But the main thrust of those movies — boys chase, girls get chased — has lingered, and one could easily believe it’s the only way mainstream Hollywood comedies think.
It’s certainly what you might have thought if you caught the trailer for Blockers, which plays up the terror felt by the three parents — played by Leslie Mann, Ike Barinholtz and pro wrestler John Cena (who’s pretty much established himself as a bona fide comic talent at this stage) — when they learn about their daughters’ imminent ‘loss of innocence’.
It’s the trailer’s job, of course, to sell the movie, and in the process of doing that a fair bit of nuance can get tossed out the window.
Because the three young women in Blockers aren’t being pressured into sex by eager young blokes — they’re generally smart, curious, selfaware and pretty much in control of what they want.
(It’s part of a refreshing trend, actually — one that goes back as far as 1999’s American Pie, where the clueless guys were frequently schooled by girls unafraid to assert themselves. For more recent examples, I recommend tracking down The To-Do List and the underrated Bad Neighbours 2.)
And any misgivings or apprehensions they might have stem from the usual turbulence of the teenage years, when you’re still working out who you are and what you’re into.
In fact, it’s the parents’ desperation to preserve their daughters’ supposed purity that provides the bulk of the laughs (and there are plenty of good laughs in Blockers), but the movie astutely points out the hypocrisy of their actions.
After all, the movie says, would they be so stressed out if they had sons who’d made a similar pact?