Film Review: Satirical 'Fort Tilden' puts privileged youth on blast
Fort Tilden is about two spoiled brats who have had life handed to them, who fake depth so well that even they are not aware of how wholly shallow they are, who are reprehensible to everyone around them and even to each other.
Fort Tilden is about two spoiled brats who have had life handed to them, who fake depth so well that even they are not aware of how wholly shallow they are, who are reprehensible to everyone around them and even to each other.
They make for a pretty good movie.
Allie (Clare McNulty) and Harper (Bridey Elliott) live in a gorgeous Williamsburg apartment that is paid for by the Bank of Parent, as is the rest of their lifestyle. Harper is an artist, or so she claims, but her main job seems to be asking her dad for money. Allie is a bit more motivated, convinced she is going to do the Peace Corps in Liberia, even though outer parts of Brooklyn are a challenge.
They meet two guys at a party hosted by girls they pretend to like but clearly hate, and invite themselves on their beach sojourn to Fort Tilden, a lovably ramshackle shore on the Rockaways.
Before they leave on their journey, Harper starts rearranging the apartment. "I want the place to be sex-ready," she says, slapping a copy of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest on the couch. Best to simulate intelligence where it is otherwise lacking.
Harper and Allie are the answer to the idyllic image of a New York full of strivers and starving artists and fantastical weirdos. It is increasingly turned over to the privileged whose main motivation to do good is to say that they have done good. Call it the anti-After Hours.
"Gawd!" is Allie and Harper's exasperated battle cry, as if they have been dealt a hard hand because the ungentrified bodega they happen to wander into does not have iced coffee.
Comparisons to HBO's Girls will abound, but Fort Tilden has a more satirical bent than Lena Dunham's much-talked-about show. Dunham's characters have at least the possibility of personal growth and bouts of authenticity in their portrayal of being adrift and twentysomething. Fort Tilden is blunt, and its protagonists unabashedly awful (Elliott and McNulty are fabulously up to the task).
Still, Fort Tilden has true moments of harsh reality that get to the heart of what the filmmakers are saying. As when the girls get topless on the beach - they are laid literally bare - in order to fit in. Or when they say what they truly think of each other while clutching kittens they've found on the beach but will soon discard because they are, like, so done with them.
Directed by Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers, who also wrote the script, Fort Tilden won the Grand Jury Prize at least year's SXSW. It's a solid first effort, but it will be even more interesting to see what these two can do next.
Fort Tilden *** (Out of four stars)
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Directed by Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers. With Bridey Elliott, Clare McNulty, Neil Casey, Alysia Reiner, Reggie Watts, Griffin Newman. Distributed by
Orion Releasing.
Running time: 1 hour,
38 mins.
Parent's guide: R (language, sexual content, some graphic nudity, brief drug use).
Playing at: AMC Neshaminy 24.EndText
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