Obscure Opinions: Speak.

An indie movie staring a now famous actor when they were a child, before they were famous? This is definitely my territory. Enjoy!

Who is that child actor you may ask? Well it's Kristen Stewart! And she is only thirteen years old in this movie. I find it saddening that Twilight has basically ruined a brilliant actresses career. You guys do realise that 90% of her career was before Twilight, right? That Twilight was nine years into her career as an actress, that she was acting since she nine years of age and was in seventeen movies before Twilight, right? So judging her on film franchise just shows how insanely thick you are. So fuck any one who says she is a bad actress, you don't have a goddamn right to say that if all you've done is base it on fucking Twilight. She has had an incredible career and is incredibly talented, so just STFU and GTFO.

Apparently, I can't argue with this because I've never read it, but this was based on a book and is a pretty terrible adaptation of said book. It makes a lot of changes and loses a lot of what the book was about in the process. Like I said, I can't argue with this, but it's always worth bringing this stuff up.

So Speak is about Melinda Sordino who is just starting high school in an apparent alternative universe where adults cant act and are forced to act like presenters on Children's Breakfast show, forever. Between the shitty acting of all the adult characters and the horrors of high school a backstory slowly starts to form hinting at something very serious. Over the course of the year she turns a closet inside a closet into a place to hang out, why no one uses this space is never answered, nor is it ever answered why it took half a year for her to install a lamp, but whatever. She eventually bonds with her kooky irritating as fuck pretentious dick of an art teacher (you know he is kooky, he has a ponytail) while she continues to whine and has to draw trees SYMBOLISM. She gets bullied, turns down any attempt to make friends, complains she has none. Usual emo teen self important attention seeking whinging. Her home life is genuinely dysfunctional and her parents seem medically retarded, I'm really not sure they are fit to raise a kid but no wonder Melinda is so weird. There is a certain deal of closure, but no real sense of triumph because even the triumph comes with heartbreak. 

I did like the balance of goofy and serious, but the goofy is perhaps a little too goofy for my tastes because when the film starts bringing up things like paedophillia, rape and racism I felt like I was in another film entirely. This is also true of the odd sequence when Melinda discusses things, with another version of herself, this happens for the first time and only time, less than twenty minutes before the movie is over.

Melinda feels a lot like what Bella Swan must have been like when she was younger. And I know I opened this review damning those tarring Kristen with Twilight, but it is kinda hard to ignore the similarities between the two characters. I mean I got out of Secondary School and now I have real world, adult problems, so I just groaned and rolled my eyes all the times she gives a self loathing inner monologue. I guess this'll appeal to those younger than me.

The film isn't all doom and gloom. I mean the film is certainly bleak for most of its running time to the point where it actually becomes hardwork to watch but there is at least 10% of the movie which is happy and it makes those nice moments all the more enjoyable when 90% of the movie is pain. Although the art teacher irritated the hell out of me, I still found his relationship with Melinda charming. And although I think Melinda's parents were awful, I still found the Christmas scene when they got the art set so charming I got a little teary eyed. Plus when the rape/paedophillia subplot starts to take centre stage, it's heartbreaking rather than monotonous like all the rest of the movie. Andy, the rapist, is genuinely frightening, the movie doesn't even go out if its way to force this, he just is through fluid storytelling, it's impressive. There is also the impressive way everything eventually comes together, little scraps of seemingly pointless narrative eventually all tie back to that night.

Another great part of this movie is Stewart, she is thirteen years old here. I'm pretty sure she barely even knows what rape is and yet her performance of a young girl, attempting to first comprehend what has happened to her and then actually speak out about it is just incredible, heartbreaking. I couldn't imagine what it'd be like to watch this as a woman. Just a shame she didn't get a better movie to give this performance in.

I can't tell if all the characters around Melinda are so odd, because the film is directly through her eyes and we are just seeing her perception of the world or if she is just surrounded by shit writing. The more I watched the film, the more I think the theory of it all being literally through her eyes is true because the film makes a lot of statements, which wouldn't look out of place on a fourteen year olds Tumblr, which would make perfect sense if we are in the world of a 13 year old girl. And I understand that with her past she has more than enough reason to be emo, but I still found it grew tiresome pretty quickly. Although since when did they call groups in schools 'clans'?

Visually it's really odd, especially the use of closeups, the film will often make a spectacle of the things that never need it and then carry on as normal, trying to be bland as possible when suddenly a persons face will fill the entire screen with no reason or need or they'll suddenly take the camera off the tripod and wander around with it in their hands for some reason.

So do I recommend it? You know a movie has a problem, when you start laughing awkwardly at it, because it's just that shit. I mean okay, that is a little unfair, Speak isn't shit it's just boring. And honestly I can't work out who the hell this is aimed at, 90% of the movie is emo self loathing which is a phase I have long left behind but I could hardly recommend it to the emo self loathing teens due to all the adult themes the movie has. So you would guess that makes it unrecommendable, right? Well not exactly, the central performance from Kristen Stewart is truly incredible and although the film is 90% monotony, I think her performance can be enough to drag you through.

Think About It!

-Locke