In Medias Res

Anthony Lane wrote an interesting review of J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek reboot in last week's New Yorker, and while young, goodlooking space cadets gallivanting across the Milky Way at Warp 9 might not be anybody's idea of a proper 'teen film', I maintain that the film strays from Sci-Fi and into post-O.C. territory frequently enough to warrant comment here. And, like, Kirk's causeless cocksure rebellion totally channels Jimmy Dean. Or, uh, Ryan Atwood.

Lane comments briefly on Star Trek's heavy-handed characterizations, particularly with respect to Kirk's catch-all "father dying whilst attempting to save family and crew" background, concluding that the film's reliance on conspicuous explanation is symptomatic of a larger trend in Hollywood cinema that emphasizes transparency over allusion. In Batman Begins, Lane notes, Bruce Wayne's fear of and fascination with bats is quickly reduced to a flashback of an adolescent Wayne falling headfirst into a cave of the winged icons. "What's wrong", Lane asks, "with 'Batman is?'"

Backhanded explanations such as these feel like preemptive rejoinders to questions and concerns an "average" Western audience might hypothetically have, as though the filmmakers feel compelled to curb confusion before it happens. I'm not sure whether this is indicative of a system that gives audiences too little credit or a society that really does need everything spoon fed to them—don't they have focus groups and market surveys for this sort of thing? And to bring this back to teen movies: The fallback characterization method in more "serious" teen movie fare has traditionally been to give your protagonist one easily identifiable fault or hang-up with a digestible explanation for it. If you're a troublesome rebel who refuses to do well, it's probably because you're just misunderstood—all you need is the cute new girl who really gets you to encourage you to open up and share your personal history. If you're, say, Donnie Darko, or Josh Hartnett's character in The Faculty, or the dude from The O.C. or Van Wilder or, hell, Abrams' Captain Kirk, you're only a juvenile delinquent clashing with teachers/parents/police/any authority figure whatsoever because you choose to, because actually you're an unprecedented genius with a 200-point I.Q. and "intimidating" standardized test scores, because, like, you're just too deep, and, like, nobody gets you, and obviously every fuck-up loser in backwater American highschools splits their school-skipping spare time shooting smack and reading dog-eared copies of Gravity's Rainbow. And delinquents who do badly in school are far less sympathetic for the audience. Or sexually desirable for the alternative chick who inevitable falls for him.

Also, if you're a genius delinquent with rugged goodlooks and problems with authority, you may be a vampire: