"It sounds like yet another howl of self-righteousness from the young and
chronically pissed-off, but thankfully, the director, Alex Sichel, and her sister,
Sylvia, who wrote the script of All Over Me, turn out to be much smarter than that.
The Sichels pilot you expertly through this small, circumscribed world, where
drugs are readily available, parents are peripheral and kids grow up fast. It's an
emotional hothouse, and the film's camera style, which dwells on close-ups,
records every minute change in the temperature, while the crisply written script
encourages you to make the necessary inferences and connections, and it's not
hard. The tightly directed cast of gifted young actors make every gesture count."
"The Truth About Girls" by Nell Bernstein
PEOPLE are already likening "All Over Me" to
Larry Clark's "Kids," a comparison that more
than misses the point. "Kids" wasn't about what
it's like to be a teenage boy in New York City; it
was about what it's like to be Clark, loitering on
the fringes of Washington Square Park, gawking
at the boys on their skateboards but failing to
imagine what might be going on behind their
blank stares. "All Over Me" -- Alex and Sylvia
Sichel's low-key look at two young women
growing up in New York's Hell's Kitchen -- is
shot from the inside out. It's about what it's like
to be its young subjects -- not what it's like to
look at them -- and it succeeds beautifully at
capturing the inner life of girls.
It's no surprise that this film was made by sisters
(Sylvia wrote the screenplay and Alex directed),
so piercingly does it convey the love/hate
relationship between two young women trying
to figure themselves out with and against each
other. "All Over Me" is funny in exactly the
quiet, painful way that adolescence often is.
You might suspect you'll laugh later, but right
now it hurts too much.
Coming-of-age movies spring eternal, but they
rarely have much to do with what it's actually
like to grow up. One of the things that John
Hughes et al. keep missing is that, while
heterosexual adventures may seem like the main
story, the real romance -- and the real
heartbreak -- of girlhood is best friendship.
Claude (Alison Folland) and Ellen (Tara
Subkoff) are 15-year-old best friends who've
spent all their time together as long they can
remember. Claude would be happy to keep it
that way; she's still endlessly entertained by
hanging out with Ellen in Claude's cramped
bedroom. But Ellen is beginning to get bored --
a dangerous boredom that makes her twitch
with restlessness and pick fights with Claude as
an excuse to bolt out the door and into the
street.
As in "Kids," apartments here are merely
launching pads -- life happens on the streets. For
Ellen, those streets are drug-laced, treacherous
and usually lead to Mark (Cole Hauser), her
menacing boyfriend. Staggering down the
sidewalk on impossibly high heels, her bra straps
perennially exposed, Subkoff's Ellen is so skinny
she looks like her bones are about to snap. But
she's no easy victim. A fierce, narrow will
propels her toward a future that Claude -- who
lumbers sturdily along the same streets on
roller-skates -- eventually realizes she doesn't
want to share.
From the very first scene, what distinguishes the
Sichels' characters from those in "Kids" is that
all of them -- even the nasty Mark -- have
subtext. Sylvia Sichel's spare script leaves plenty
of room for Alex's Cassavetes-like interest in
faces -- how much they can convey when
words have reached their limit -- and the young
cast rises to the challenge. Beneath her
ready-for-anything bravado, Subkoff telegraphs
a doubt and anguish that are matched by the
helpless love behind Folland's smooth-faced
calm. A greedy weakness seeps through Mark's
cruelty. When Claude, depressed because Ellen
has ditched her for Mark, drowns her sorrows in
a carton of ice cream, regret and longing leak
from the corners of her mouth as she eats.
Ostensibly the weaker of the two -- "Everyone
knows I'm your dog," she tells Ellen -- Claude is
the one who will eventually find the courage to
strike out on her own. When she finally lets
herself fall in love with an adorable pink-haired
girl rocker (Leisha Hailey), she smiles for what
seems like the first time, and her face is
transformed. Folland's performance makes you
understand why people can't stop making
coming-of-age movies. Her Claude isn't quite
sure who she wants to be yet, but you can see a
more certain self straining to break through, and
it makes her beautiful.
Perhaps the worst of the current slanders against
adolescents is that they are amoral. In fact,
moral struggle is central to adolescence (why do
you think teenagers are so self-righteous?).
Adolescents see right through the adult world at
the same time that they're starting to look
deeper into themselves. In movies about girls,
the ensuing transformation usually gets played
out as a "makeover" -- a new hairstyle and a
new boyfriend take the character over the
threshold into a new life. The transformations
Claude and Ellen go through in "All Over Me"
are more than physical, and much more
complicated. It's clear that as much is lost as is
gained when the butterfly abandons the cocoon.
With the exception of Wilson Cruz -- so
charming as Ricky on "My So-Called Life," but
looking a little lost on the big screen -- the
supporting actors give equally nuanced
performances. Pat Briggs, as a gay musician in
his 20s who moves into Claude's building, is a
relief every time he crosses the screen, his
warmth and self-assurance indicating that these
confused kids -- or at least some of them --
might one day grow into themselves, too.
The last year has seen a wave of small films --
"Welcome to the Dollhouse," "Foxfire," "Girls
Town" -- heralded for putting girls at the center
and giving their experience credence. "All Over
Me" comes closer than any of them to capturing
not just what it's like to be a girl but what it's
like to be a person.
*April 25, 1997*
"Screenwriters without Cameras" By Scott Macaulay
Narrative Collaboration in the Land of the
Writer/Director
An acquisition executive said to me recently,
"There are a lot of good directors in the world of
independent film. There just aren't that many good
screenplays." Given that most indie debuts come
from writer/directors, that's a pretty damning
comment.
Sundance continues to feature more and more works
by writer/directors, but it's debatable whether
these films display the visual assurance to match
their clever dialogue and original stories. The
Sundance lineup this year exemplifies this
"exclusion of the screenwriter." For example, only
four out of 18 titles in the Dramatic Competition
feature separate directors and writers. However,
two Sundance films highlight the creative
possibilities inherent in indie film
director/writer collaborations. Both bold riffs on
the classic Hollywood forms of crime and Noir
genres. Alex Sichel's ALL OVER ME, written by her
sister Sylvia, and Michael Oblowitz's THIS WORLD,
THEN THE FIREWORKS, written by Larry Gross, are
creative collaborations that illustrates the
benefits of the director/screenwriter division in
indie film.
For Sylvia Sichel, the challenge in ALL OVER ME
came in writing a story that employed crime
elements while resisting generic Hollywood formula.
ALL OVER ME introduces us to Claude, a confused
teen who is grappling with her sexuality while also
grappling with an anti-gay murder. The film's setup
is reminscent of classic noir scenarios but the
Sichel sisters were, from the beginning, more
interested in their protagonist's inner emotional
state, not the affect of her actions on the outside
world. In fact, ALL OVER ME boldly eliminates many
key scenes -- a police interview, the discovery of
the body, the murder itself -- found in many
similar stories. The result is a film more akin to
the European art cinema of Agnes Varda then studio
teen crime pieces.
"What was most difficult about writing this
feature," Sichel says, "was not the visuals but,
instead, finding out what was important about this
girl's story. It was a very specific choice to
leave out the murder. I wanted to have "big budget
moments" in the story, but that would have been
untrue to what the script was trying to do -- take
you into this claustrophobic teen world. The big
moments for Claude were the decisions leading up to
those Hollywood moments."
To accurately find this emotional truth, Sichel
collaborated extensively with her sister. "I would
write and show her every moment in the writing. Our
writing process was claustrophobic, and, in that
way, very generative."
Screenwriter Larry Gross found a different way of
bonding with director Michael Oblowitz: "Our egos
were kept in check by the authority of Jim
Thompson," he says of his process adapting pulp
writer Thompson's short story for Oblowitz, a
friend as well as a pioneering member of the New
York No Wave cinema movement of the late '70s and
early '80s. As dense as ALL OVER ME is narratively
minimal, THIS WORLD, THEN THE FIREWORKS signals its
artistic intentions before you even enter the
theater. By keeping the title of Thompson's story,
the film -- in an age of neo-noirs with plain
titles like BOUND and CAUGHT -- foreshadows its
hyperbolic desires. An emotionally chaotic tale of
incest, murder, and crime, the film synthesizes the
slick visual look of contemporary period noir with
an outrageous thematic density, drawing on
everything from Orson Welles to the French
post-Surrealist Georges Bataille.
Screenwriter Larry Gross got involved in the
project when Oblowitz showed him the short story
and told him that his producers had optioned it.
"This text was written late in Thompson's career
and was written in a truly insane, dislocated way.
And that sense of dislocation, still having a
melodramatic power, totally hooked me," Gross says.
"I said to Michael, 'This is going to be closer to
an expermental narrative film that still has a
chance of reaching an audience than anything I've
ever come across.'"
For Oblowitz and Gross, mutual selection replaced
the development process. Gross, whose Hollywood
credits include 48 HOURS and GERONIMO, wrote the
script knowing that Oblowitz's sensibility would be
in line with what he wanted to do with the
material: "We analyzed the script together and we
were eye to eye. Michael and I both went to the
pedantic "graduate school of close analysis of
movies and literature" and we threw in all these
references to Lacan, TOUCH OF EVIL and Bataille. In
fact, this was the closest thing to Bataille that I
had encountered in American literature."
Recalling at times the overheated mixture of
intellectual provocation and debased carnality
found in such Bataille novels as STORY OF THE EYE
and BLUE OF NOON, THIS WORLD, THEN THE FIREWORKS
achieves its startling narrative complexity through
the voiceovers of its protagonist, Martin Lakewood.
"He is one of the truly insane narrators in
American fiction. In writing the script, I took the
position that we would go over the top with
everything and then pare it down in the editing
room. And that's what we did."
One other common artistic hero convinced Gross and
Oblowitz that they were right for one another:
Fassbinder. "The one great film narrator who, in my
opinion, stylistically gets the same effect as
Thompson is Fassbinder," Gross proposes. "And I
knew that Fassbinder is one of Michael's favorite
directors. Fassbinder steeped himself in '50s pulp
fiction with films like THE AMERICAN SOLDIER and in
my mind, there was an affinity between Michael,
Fassbinder, and Thompson."
Gross and Sichel both note that they remained the
screenwriters on their projects, leaving the
visuals to the directors. Not surprisingly, both
films, in the hands of virtuouso visual stylists,
display some of the boldest visual sensibilities at
the Festival, from the chiarscuro compositions of
ALL OVER ME to the hyperkinetic montage of THIS
WORLD... As independent cinema grows and matures --
and as indie producers gradually obtain the capital
required to focus on longer development processes
-- we'll probably see more such collaborations. As
that acquisition exec noted, some directors were
just born to direct, not to write. And there's
nothing wrong with that.
"All Over Me" review by Dominque Falla
Essentially a coming of age film, All Over Me takes an intimate look at the sisterly relationship of two best
friends, Claude (Alison Folland) and Ellen (Tara Subkoff). Most teenage girls experience a relationship this
intensely, at some point, the difference here is that whilst most girls are discovering boys, Claude begins to
realise it's her feelings for Ellen which run deeper than just friendship. It seems fitting that a film about two girls,
who've been friends since childhood, should be written and directed by two sisters. Sylvia Sichel wrote the
story and first time director Alex Sichel brought it to life on the big screen. The staging is always intimate, as is
the story. There are no larger looks at anything outside, we only see what concerns Claude, in her room and her
world. Set in New York's "Hell's Kitchen", and with a murder to lead the plot along, we get a grubby and
uncomfortable view of Claude's life. She is one of only a few sympathetic characters in the film, and it is the
stunning, honest performances of the two young leads, which really engages the viewer. Claude's best friend
Ellen does share an intimacy with Claude, but her unwillingness to leave her thuggish boyfriend Mark (Cole
Hauser) leads to a division, and ultimately the friends split.
Music plays an integral part in this film, with a soundtrack comprising Patti Smith, The Murmurs, Ani Di Franco
and other Riot Grrrls. The viewer comes to realise that Claude has chosen carefully, the soundtrack to her teens.
She sees music as very important to her life and desperately wants to play in a band. It is her search for some
sort of independence from the dominating, and more outgoing Ellen, which finds her at a women's music club,
where she meets Lucy (Leisha Hailey) who leads her gently through the sexual minefield she faces. She also
provides the musical mentor she has been looking for. Alison Folland portrays Claude as awkward and
insecure, but never weak, and so her strength in breaking away from Ellen is totally believable. Musicians play
pivotal roles in the film. The Murmurs lead singer Leisha Hailey plays Claude's love interest Lucy, who is totally
comfortable with her sexuality. Pat Briggs, lead singer for Psychotica, plays the small, but important role of a
gay friend of Claude's, who is murdered in a homophobic attack.
This debut feature for the Sichel Sisters shows great sensitivity and their symbiotic relationship will hopefully
lead to future collaborations. In this, her first starring role, Alison Folland ("To Die For" and "Before and
After") shows incredible talent and is perfectly cast as the "confused teenager". As she grows older, and
moves into adult roles, Alison should bring much sought after maturity and honesty to the screen. The more
experienced Tara Subkoff ("Freeway", "When the Bough Breaks") has already shown herself to be a capable
and versatile actor, and brought a great deal of depth to the acerbic character of Ellen. In a world where most
movies about teenage girls revolve around shopping, it is refreshing to see such a raw, honest and intimate
look at the actual "relationship" these two girls share. All Over Me examines the issues without being
judgmental, or preachy, and ultimately relies on a superb cast for its success.
"All Over Me Capsule" by Lisa Alspector
From the Chicago Reader
Claude (Alison Folland) wants to take care of her best friend Ellen (Tara Subkoff)--one of those
fragile girls who are always getting into trouble--partly because she's in love with Ellen. But Ellen's
in love with Mark, a mean, dangerous type whose extreme behavior (even when it takes place
offscreen) almost undermines the realism of this 1996 teen-angst drama. Though the performances
by Folland (To Die For) and Subkoff, who can't be much older than their characters, are adept, the
sluggish and repetitive narrative only makes sense when these qualities evoke Claude's point of
view: she's a kid trying to figure things out, and she has to make some mistakes again and again
before she learns from them. Sylvia Sichel's naive screenplay has the behavior of caricatured
secondary characters repeatedly threatening to turn Claude's complex self-image into pat
psychologizing. But, enhanced by a little sophistication in Sichel's sister Alex's directing, this
naivete is the basis of the movie's success as a character study.
"All Over Me" By Morgan Chavez of the Remington Review
All Over Me is the story of two best friends,
Ellen (Tara Subkoff) and Claude (Allison
Folland), coming of age in New York’s Hell’s
Kitchen. Initially, its Ellen’s sexual experiences
with, and growing attachment to, controlling
small-time drug dealer Mark (Cole Hausen) that
causes rifts in their relationship. Gradually,
however, Claude’s erotic longings and loyalties
shift away from Ellen, who becomes increasingly
dependent on both Claude and her boyfriend’s
drugs.
Folland, who played a similarly insecure
character in To Die For, portrays Claude
perfectly as an uncomfortable, shy and yet
capable and intelligent fifteen year-old daughter
and friend who’s better at taking care of Ellen
and her single, dating-preoccupied mother than
seeking her own pleasure. But as she becomes
involved in the life of her new gay neighbor,
Luke (Pat Briggs, lead singer of Psychotica) and
infatuated with riot grrrl Lucy (Leisha Hailey, of
the pop duo Murmers) her own desires emerge.
It’s Luke’s clash with gay-bashing Mark that
finally seals the separation of two friends.
The young actors subtly underplay their
adolescent characters here, bringing realism and
pathos to young lives spent mostly in the street,
at work, or in other people’s homes. Yet there
are few surprises in the central characters. Ellen,
in particular, is a one-dimensional stereotype of a
white, anorexic heterosexual co-dependent
female; a young mirror of Claude’s anxious
mother.
Screenwriter Sylvia Sichel and her sister, director
Alex Sichel, spend too little time developing the
relationship between Claude and Ellen and its
slow unwinding feels more unfinished and
overdue than painful. All Over Me only hints at
the woe and confusion that severs adolescent
female relationships as conflicting sexual and
emotional desires emerge; instead it becomes
mired in a substory concerning Luke and the
threatening presence of Mark: mirroring,
perhaps, the lives of its characters, but
ineffectually conveying their losses.
(Rated R.)
Grade: C+
- Sandra Hall The Sydney Morning Herald
