Film Club
It’s a crisp and foggy night, all you wanna do is stop by the movie store, recoup under the florescent lights and catch the next muni home to watch some weird ass flick the alt girl at the check out counter recommends.
Hi, it’s me, the weird ass alt girl at the check out counter- I see you’re returning Jawbreaker. I don’t know you very well, but maybe this would be a sick follow-up.
Movie of The month
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Movie of The month 〰️
Foxfire (1996)
“Don’t take any shit”
This Movie completely changed the trajectory of my entire life- That’s why it had to be first for Film Club! Welcome!!!
First we start in a wooded wilderness oasis, a naked man is scaling the rocks as a grungy curly haired girl follows with a polaroid, fully clothed in flannel and jeans. UH oh! They’re late for school!.
Maddy roller blades around the hallways taking photos of her classmates, some in unfortunate situations. It’s now raining as a silent class is waiting for Mr. Buttinger the coach to hound Rita until she dissects her frog. But she doesn’t have the heart.
Back in the hallways a butterfly knife is kicked through the metal detectors at the entrance. We pan up to see the person in the combat boots who follows. It’s Legs.
Legs enters the classroom where the coach is harassing Rita to kill her frog in front of the class. Suddenly a hand interjects and frees the frog, again Legs. She jumps out the rainy window dodging detention, left for Rita. Also an awful place where the Butthole Buttinger prefers to take advantage of his female students.
That day Legs hears about it in the girls bathroom then in a fit of fury, she bands together with Maddy and Violet to save Rita.
One thing leads to another and they beat the shit out of him.
“If you ever touch me again, I’ll cut your balls off with my toenail clippers”
The girls are then suspended and that’s really when the fun begins. Stick and Pokes, art school type shit, high school bedrooms, a joy ride in the asshole quarterbacks car, real stories about relationships with men, authoritative, spousal and fatherly.
It’s tied together in this beautiful fantasy of an abandoned house where the girls can get drunk and dance to The Cramps to the warm lights of burning candles.
I’m not here to give away the ending but let’s just say that it brings painful tears from deep inside of me to the surface. As a girl who moved twice a week since she was 2 years old, went to 14 different schools and took greyhound buses across state lines to visit parents, this movie and it’s ending in particular burns deep inside of me.
A film for the lone wolf to finally feel seen. She creates and dissipates. Thank you for being a creature to lean on, Legs.
I love you.
Fun Facts
Behind the Scenes:
Angelina Jolie was 19 when filming
The location for the abandoned house was staged with flown in trees, a rarity of necessity for Oregon.
The script is based on a novel following a 1950’s girl gang in upstate New York called ‘Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang’
Angelina Jolie climbed the bridge on her own without a harness, making everyone on the crew nervous. The director had to beg her to climb down.
Angelina Jolie agreed to this role over lunch with the director, after the agreement was made the first question was “what kind of knife do you think Legs would carry?”
The director, Annette Haywood-Carter, met too many difficulties when creating this project- producers that only speak in ‘marketable’. I find her so inspiring to push through these barriers in order to help pull us up. I hope to work with her on a project in the future.. I do have something in mind <3
Filming Locations:
Portland, OR
Broadway Bridge, Portland OR
Burnside Skatepark, Portland OR
Portland Audubon Property *My dream abandoned wilderness*