‘Good Girls’ full of charm, humor

‘Ladies in Black’ uneven dramedy

FBy Courtney Howard

or the most part, successful teen comedies follow a tried and true formula. Memorable high school movies typically feature characters who feel like outsiders floundering hilariously en route to the revelation that simply by being themselves, they’ll find what’s eluded them for so long. John Hughes knew it well, as did his imitators, realizing that even small deviations can be enough to refresh the genre for a new generation. Full of charm, humor and heart, director Laura Terruso’s “Good Girls Get High” mixes it up, delivering a “high” concept comedy in which the two kids least likely to go astray do exactly that.

High school senior Sam Jensen (Abby Quinn) and her best friend Danielle Compton (Stefanie Scott) have always lived by the rules. While the rest of their classmates were out doing the crazy things normal teens do, the two overachieving co-valedictorians were either crushing their extracurriculars, rollerblading around town, or enjoying wholesome activities on Friday nights. However, when the pair discovers they’ve been voted the school’s “Biggest Good Girls”, it sends Danielle into a tailspin. She convinces Sam there’s a ticking clock on their irrational, wild days and if they don’t do something about it now, they’ll be locked into these roles for the rest of their lives. After Sam discovers a joint hidden in her single father’s (Matt Besser) laundry, the two pals start behaving badly with their very on-brand style of pragmatism.

Working from the blueprint of Sarah Miller’s book, Terruso and co-writer Jennifer Nelson Blankenship demonstrate a clear understanding of what it takes to craft a finely-tuned, female-forward feature. The gals’ friendship is always at the forefront of the action. Our heroines are smart, funny, capable young women, who, despite their wits being impaired, remain true to themselves. Occasionally the perspective slips into their psyches, showing their world through fuzzy “weed cam” shots, Sam’s daydreamy longings for science teacher Mr D (Danny Pudi), or Danielle’s slo-mo fantasies about harlequin-romance-haired hunk Jeremy (Booboo Stewart).

Sam and Danielle’s schoolgirl crushes aren’t their endgame; their reward is the fidelity of their friendship, and the male characters serve to complement that. It even subverts traditional roles: The character who’d usually be written as a “mean girl,” social activist influencer Ashanti (Chante Adams), is admired and supported by the gals. The character who’d stereotypically be portrayed as the condescending authority figure, pregnant cop Patty (Lauren Lapkus), finds a lovely kinship with the pair.

Embroiled

The filmmakers also know how to build a highly comedic scenario. The tomfoolery the two find themselves embroiled in is absurdly funny. Though there are raunch-com elements here, the gross-out factor is fairly tame. For instance, instead of getting scatological during an intimate encounter where one character fears her upset stomach will ruin the mood (an operatic aria perfectly captures her anxiety), it’s merely gaseous emanations. An accidental sexting is handled practically. By framing the girls’ shenanigans with Sam’s Harvard admissions confessional, “Good Girls” delivers the exposition with witty commentary.

Augmenting the narrative drive, cinematographer Benjamin Rutkowski bathes the protagonists’ world in saturated colors. Sam’s sanctuaries, such as her bedroom and family ice-cream shop, are color-coded in welcoming teals and yellows. Danielle surrounds herself with light pastels. Composer Jay Israelson provides a warm ‘80s-inspired synth score that would’ve suited Hughes himself.

With heartening, encouraging messages that speak to the target audience and beyond, “Good Girls Get High” doesn’t stray too far from the formula, but manipulates it in such a way that feels fresh.

Women working at a fancy Sydney department store in 1959 are the subjects of “Ladies in Black”, an uneven dramedy directed and co-written by veteran Australian filmmaker Bruce Beresford (“Breaker Morant”, “Driving Miss Daisy”). After establishing an interesting picture of conservative Anglo-Australian values clashing with worldly views brought to the new land by postwar immigrants, “Ladies” is let down by a screenplay lacking the sharp wit and emotional depth to bring its characters and themes fully to life. Attractively packaged, optimistic to a fault, and well performed by an ensemble including Julia Ormond and rising local star Angourie Rice, “Ladies” should register as pleasant enough entertainment for general domestic audiences, predominantly older females.

Set in the Sydney of Beresford’s youth and based on the 1993 novel “The Women in Black” by his University of Sydney contemporary Madeleine St John, “Ladies” unfolds in the golden rays of summertime leading up to Christmas. With CGI restoring long-gone streetcars and touching up historical buildings that remain in downtown Sydney, the film looks terrific even before the camera glides into the luxuriously appointed ladies’ fashion department of upmarket retailer F.G. Goodes.

Taking her place as a lowly temp worker in the busy holiday season is Lisa Miles (Rice), a 16-year-old high school graduate awaiting her university entrance exam results. The bookish girl dreams of being a poet and getting more out of life than the housewife role of her hardworking mother (Susie Porter). To attend university in this era, Lisa needs permission from her father (Shane Jacobson), an intermittently amusing caricature of the basically decent but ignorant Aussie stereotype. Lisa’s first task at F.G. Goodes is to help Patty Williams (Alison McGirr) and Fay Baines (Rachael Taylor). The youngster is soon taken under the wing of Magda Szombatheli (Ormond), a sophisticated Slovenian who arrived as a post-war “refo” (Aussie derogatory slang for refugee) and now runs the prestigious and pricey Model Gowns showroom.

The script by Beresford and producer Sue Milliken (with whom Beresford also collaborated on “The Fringe Dwellers”, “Black Robe” and “Paradise Road”) weaves the four women’s stories into a hit-and-miss panorama of Australian womanhood on the cusp of the revolution. Rice impresses as the bright-eyed Lisa, whose friendship with Magda and her cultured Hungarian “refo” husband Stefan (Vincent Perez) speaks positively about the role played by migrants in the country’s post-war emergence as a vibrant multicultural society. (RTRS)