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As You Are (2016)

Cast: Owen Campbell, Charlie Heaton and Amandla Stenberg

Director: Miles Joris-Peyrafitte

Writers: Madison Harrison, Miles Joris-Peyrafitte

Synopsis: As You Are, a film set in the early 1990′s, follows the unique relationship of three unlikely individuals. The characters explain and recount the events that occured during the course of their seemingly endless friendship in the form of a police investigation.

Review:

As You Are got its very familiar title from Nirvana’s hit, Come As You Are. This is because Nirvana was a huge influence to the main characters, Jack, Mark and Sarah. To further analyse the reasoning behind the title, As You Are screams “embrace yourself”. As the film touches on the themes of sexuality, friendship, love, domestic violence and rebellion, the title as you are is successful in letting the audience know that this film is about self discovery and self acceptance.

The film starts off with an attention grabbing gunshot. With the ending shown at the beginning with no context, the sound of the gunshot instantly allows one to be curious as to what happened.

Jack (Owen Campbell), an introverted, good willed teenager who lives with his supposedly lonely, single mother, Karen (Mary Stuart Masterson) is shown being interrogated. Jack explains that Karen, who seems a little too dependant on alcohol, starts dating Tom (Scott Cohen), previously a Marine, who also is a single parent to Mark (Charlie Heaton), a self abiding, grunge loving misfit. Upon meeting for the first time, Jack and Mark instantly click as they share a blunt.

With no clear sense of time, Karen and Tom’s relationship escalates enough for Karen to feel comfortable with Tom moving in, along with Mark. It is then that Jack and Mark’s friendship truly starts to blossom. As the boys go through each day as roomies and schoolmates, Jack finds himself under the influence of Mark’s rebellious behaviour. Along their nonconformist adventures, they meet a girl, Sarah (Amandla Stenberg), who saves them from being torn by a bunch of threatening teenagers. Since then, the three were inseparable, and Sarah, the gracious girl from a stable family, joined them in their ventures.

As the trio do what regular teenagers might do, like smoke pot, skip school and rebel, Tom’s true colours are shown through a series of outrage towards Mark with his uncontrollable anger.

The development of the trio’s relationship is revealed through a series of interrogations with everyone but Mark - disclosing the fact that although we’re kept in the dark as to what actually happened, we know that Mark is no longer in the picture.

In the events leading up to the final revelation, we see the trio fall in and out of love - with each other, and we see the progression of Tom’s anger which eventually led to the end of his relationship with Karen. Thus, causing Mark to move out of Jack’s room, which takes an emotional toll on them both. In this time, we see Mark struggle with his domestic issue as well as his own personal issues. We also get to see Jack’s sensitive nature as he suppresses his very obvious feelings toward Mark. As they play a game of push and pull, the boys drown themselves with any kind of intoxication that could get their hands on in the hopes of running away from reality.

As You Are, which first premiered in Brazil in 2016 in the Sundance Film Festival, managed to snatch the Special Jury Award. Best known for his works on As You Are (2016), Mother’s Milk (in development), and Dreamland (2018), Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, 24, had this to say about the film.

“I wanted to make a movie about these three people navigating and finding each other, and their love and that not really being defined,” he says. “The issues that those kids are going through are obviously issues that kids still go through now. That hasn't changed. But the way we cope with it I think has changed to a certain degree, with the Internet. With social media there's been this opening of communities to people who are feeling lost or feeling confused or feeling whatever. But at the same time the negative parts of that have also risen so it's kind of a balance. What I was interested in seeing was people sit down and talk and feel things and go through that. I think there's definitely a movie to be made about that with technology.” (The Standard)

As You Are is a must watch for every teenager out there, from all backgrounds. In my opinion, this film is relatable to every teenager out there, despite whatever they may be going through. It is as such because As You Are touches on so many themes and subjects which most teenagers go through at one point or another.

The characters were built in a specific way which makes them all very relatable. As teenagers try to find themselves amongst the rest of society, it makes it difficult for some to accept who they really are. This idea is showcased throughout the film as the trio are all misfits with their own problems. The film showcases very realistic scenarios of the uncertainties one might have about themselves and the situations that they’ve been thrown into, and I think that we all have doubts about the kind of person we think we are.

The one thing that this film portrayed especially well was the feeling of confusion. As the characters go about their lives in a continuous loop of precariousness, we see the struggles that each character has to face as they try to figure out who they really are. This was well portrayed through the plot points and character development. As we see each character unfold, they get even more clueless as to what defines them as an individual. This is especially apparent in Jack and Mark’s character, not so much Sarah’s. With confusion without a solution comes the urge to try to escape reality. This idea was especially well portrayed through the character built and performance of Mark (Charlie Heaton). His character showcases what happens to a lot of teenagers - they go off the rails. Mark spends his days rebelling, being obnoxious and intoxicating himself to run away from the reality that is his father is a domestic abuser and that he may be gay. This to me perfectly reflects the behaviour of a teenager going through hardship that they don’t know how to deal with. Mark’s character shows what happens behind closed door and the consequences of it if not dealt with properly.

The topics touched on in As You Are are prevalent amongst teenagers and will continue to be for future generations to come. For a film to cover as many topics as it did so miraculously, it definitely deserves more recognition and appraisal.

As You Are’s cinematography and wardrobe really transported me, as an audience into, Jack and Mark’s world. I would first like to address the longevity of each shot. Most of the scenes have shots that are held for a long time, and this to me is effective in letting the actor’s performance shine without interruptions. A single shot also can tell a story really quickly. Take for example, the scene where Jack and Mark are sent to school. Using a bird’s eye angle, Jack and Mark are seen getting out of the car and entering the school compound as the car drives away. As soon as the car is out of the frame, the duo run out of the school’s premise and do not return. So much was told in a single, static shot. With no interruptions and only within the span of a few seconds. There were no cut-aways to unnecessary dialogue. This was instead showed to the audience through a simple, single shot.

As far as the casts’ wardrobes goes, I thought that each character’s wardrobe helped enhance their character. Clothing is used as a means of expression, but usually is influenced by their backgrounds. The character with the best wardrobe has got to be Sarah. They managed to express the kind of person she is through her clothing excellently. Sarah dresses somewhat prim and proper, but she always adds a grungy twist to her prim and proper clothing pieces. She is always seen fully covered with an outer-wear but she always has on a choker and plaid flannels or skirts. She is also often seen in darker, cooler colours. I think that her fashion choice complements her character well because Sarah comes from a well to-do family, which explains why her dressing is somewhat proper. However, it is shown that Sarah is not like the rest of her family, she is in fact, a misfit too who’s going through a rebellious phase, as is most teenagers her age. She’s still trying to figure herself out. Sarah’s outfits would give people who grew up in the 90′s a sense of nostalgia with its very accurate portrayal of 90′s fashion. The sense of nostalgia reaches even beyond the scope of what the characters are wearing but also through the set design. The set design really takes one back to a time and place of the past without being overly dramatic.

One of the best aspects of the film was its cast. The cast had very good on screen chemistry and their relationship was very dynamic. I think that each of the actors fit their roles perfectly and they understood who their characters were. This can be seen really well in Owen Campbell’s performance. He truly captured the spirit of a shy and sensitive boy who goes down a path of self discovery, only to let his emotions get in the way of his actions. Owen Campbell gave one of the most authentic and stunning performances that I’ve seen in awhile from a young actor.

As such, As You Are is a timeless film that everyone should watch for its core message and stigmatic themes will pull you into an unseen world of the struggles of an adolescent. It is an intelligently crafted film, that will be significant for many more future generations to come. This film is an important one, with aims of trying to raise awareness of common issues that teenagers are too afraid to speak up about.

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