Reading reviews on this site is often a head scratcher. Save for one boisterous post by the director's students (caustically unimpressed and self-amused), nearly all seem to hold this gently dark fable in breach of some law of realism. When I saw this in a theater in the 90s it seemed immediately clear that the film was not a true life tale but a languid fantasy of girls on the run. How often are 14 year old girls allowed to caper through a store shoplifting in front of a mute store owner, or hide out in plain site at a weedy army base where the soldiers do little but loll about and roughhouse? An initial stab at a voice-over betrays the girls' naive perspective, while their hi jinx are never checked even when one breaks into a moldering armory and is caught stealing a gun by an MP.
This isn't realism, but it also isn't a pat "flowering of early womanhood" scenario a la Man In The Moon, and has more to offer than a somewhat similar indie feature from the same period, Manny and Lo. The independently financed boom of 80s and 90s American film was experimental in only the mildest sense, but it did open the door to perspectives that before only occupied the edges of the frame. Little of it holds a candle to the seismic shift of the previous two decades (or work coming out of Asia at the time). But seldom have young women been shown wandering through a landscape, experimenting with their sensual impulses and liberty, with so few brutal consequences to themselves. In that respect, Ripe has more in common with countless films of boys on the loose.
Also confused (and confusing) in the reporting here is that the director is a woman, not a man, which may account for the mostly sensitive handling of the young leads, who are never fully exposed even during sex scenes. The performances are uneven, the writing is mostly challenging only in conception. Still, this one of those rare films that may appeal to few but has more than enough to offer if one can manage to hold still and let it slowly, steadily sway into your subconscious.
This isn't realism, but it also isn't a pat "flowering of early womanhood" scenario a la Man In The Moon, and has more to offer than a somewhat similar indie feature from the same period, Manny and Lo. The independently financed boom of 80s and 90s American film was experimental in only the mildest sense, but it did open the door to perspectives that before only occupied the edges of the frame. Little of it holds a candle to the seismic shift of the previous two decades (or work coming out of Asia at the time). But seldom have young women been shown wandering through a landscape, experimenting with their sensual impulses and liberty, with so few brutal consequences to themselves. In that respect, Ripe has more in common with countless films of boys on the loose.
Also confused (and confusing) in the reporting here is that the director is a woman, not a man, which may account for the mostly sensitive handling of the young leads, who are never fully exposed even during sex scenes. The performances are uneven, the writing is mostly challenging only in conception. Still, this one of those rare films that may appeal to few but has more than enough to offer if one can manage to hold still and let it slowly, steadily sway into your subconscious.