Starring Michael Brodie, Teresa Lynn
Directed by Michel Gondry
While director Michel Gondry is primarily known for the visual adventurousness he's displayed in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and his inventive music videos, he's also proven to be an intrepid explorer of urban communities. Just as Block Party parachuted us into Brooklyn's Clinton Hill neighbourhood and Be Kind Rewind familiarized us with Passaic, New Jersey, The We and the I takes us on a tour of the Bronx with the action rarely leaving the confines of a city bus.
School's out for summer and a few dozen obnoxious teenagers have piled onto public transit, each of them saddled with their own world of drama. While one girl (Laidychen Carrasco) drafts an invitation list for her Sweet 16 and an outcast (Kendrick Martinez) works up the nerve to ask for a date, a handful of bullies (headed by Michael Brodie and Raymond Delgado) conduct a reign of terror from the back row. Meanwhile, the class pariah (Teresa Lynn) picks this occasion to put in her first appearance in a month.
Anyone questioning, How much could happen on a single bus ride? has forgotten the accelerated pace at which secondary students live. Between stops, relationships end, regimes fall, and resolutions are made. And while the characters are constantly posturing and playacting, the insecurities and desires that drive are unflinchingly authentic.
Having workshopped his script with his nonprofessional cast, Gondry has fashioned a brash, acne-and-all account of adolescence. By the end of the line, youre ready to hurl vitriol at the first person who dares suggest that high school was the best time of their life. Curtis Woloschuk
Plays June 7-9, 11 at The Cinematheque.
