Arcade Fire, 'Super 8,' and the Trouble With Sci-Fi Kids - by Spencer Kornhaber - The Atlantic

"In somewhere U.S.A., at sometime post-2011, suburbia is at war. Patches of tract-home sprawl have incorporated into private companies. Militarized barricades separate them; night raids by ski-masked soldiers recur. What's the fighting over? Light pollution from shopping centers. The placement of golf courses. In other words, the NIMBYs have picked up guns.

This is the reality imagined in Scenes From the Suburbs, the short film "presented by" Canadian indie-rock act Arcade Fire and directed by Oscar-winner Spike Jonze (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich). Jonze has taken a literal reading of lyrics about "suburban war" from Arcade Fire's 2010 Grammy-winningThe Suburbs—even though vocalist Win Butler had been using the metaphor to talk about battles over culture and age, not zoning. But war really isn't the focus of the 30-minute clip, which premiered online Monday after a few film festival showings. Rather, the action lies with a band of kids. Around 15 years old each—impossibly pale and gaunt, the picture of Arcade Fire members-in-training—they bike and skate and tote airsoft guns around town. They party, they fight, they bullshit, they stare yearningly into the sky.

In Jonze's capable hands, the tale is beautifully—though perhaps too preciously—told. And it's a simple tale: One friend falls out with the others, for reasons as inexplicable as reasons for such things often are. Dystopia merely serves as a handy backdrop for a straight portrait of what it's like to grow up in a tribe. Time passes, people change, friendships are savored, and politics are forgotten. "When I think back about that summer, I don't think much about the army," narrator Kyle says in the short's first few moments. Viewers may just say the same when they think back about the clip.

But isn't this what always happens with fictional kids in fictional sprawl? It's impossible to watch Scenes From the Suburbs without being reminded of Super 8, the wide-screen J.J. Abrams/Steven Spielberg joint that opened to acclaim and box office success earlier this month. Like the Arcade Fires flick, it lovingly documents a clique of suburban children and their foul-mouthed banter with one other. We know the kids, we recognize the kids, we like the kids. And then a supernatural beast comes along, soon followed by camouflage-wearing troopers. Suburbia is again at war, but as audience members, we wish it weren't. We just want to hang out with those kids more. As The Atlantic's Chris Orr wrote in his review of the film, "The further the central mystery unfolds, the more you may wish you could fold it back up again."..."

via theatlantic.com

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales